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China’s PLA Navy sends destroyer and frigate on first escort mission, targeting pirates off Somalia

  • Guided-missile destroyer Suzhou is an upgraded version of the Type 052D designed to match the US Navy’s Arleigh-Burke class warships
  • The Nantong, a frigate with medium-range air defence capability, also joined the 41st fleet on its first mission

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The Suzhou is part of a three-vessel PLA Navy fleet sent to the Gulf of Aden and the waters off Somalia. Photo: Handout
Amber Wang

Chinese navy destroyer the Suzhou and frigate the Nantong have begun their first escort mission in the Gulf of Aden and the waters off Somalia.

They are sailing with the 41st fleet of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy that set out from Zhoushan, in east China’s Zhejiang province, on Wednesday, according to a statement from the social media account of the Eastern Theatre Command.

The fleet is composed of the Suzhou, an improved version of the Type 052D guided-missile destroyer, guided-missile frigate the Nantong, and the supply ship Chaohu, with two helicopters and dozens of special-operations soldiers on board, the statement said.

Type 052D – or Luyang III-class as Nato calls it – was designed to match the US Navy’s Arleigh-Burke class destroyers. It is equipped with advanced radars and electronics comparable to the US Aegis system, as well as 64-cell vertical missile launchers.

The fleet carried out a range of exercises ahead of the mission, including joint search and rescue, anti-terror and anti-piracy drills, and mock rescues of hijacked merchant ships.

The PLA Navy began conducting escort missions in the Gulf of Aden and the waters off Somalia in December 2008, mainly to fight pirates there.

This is the first escort mission for both the Suzhou and the Nantong.

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