Type 052C Luyang II

China's first area-air-defence destroyer class, combining a four-face Type 346 AESA radar with vertically launched HHQ-9 missiles and serving as the technological bridge to the Type 052D.

Overview

The Type 052C, designated Luyang II by NATO and the US Department of Defense, is a six-ship class of guided-missile destroyers operated exclusively by China's People's Liberation Army Navy. It introduced the PLAN's first warship combination of a fixed active electronically scanned array radar and vertically launched long-range surface-to-air missiles, giving the fleet an indigenous area-air-defence capability rather than relying principally on point-defence weapons or imported sensor architectures.

The class combines the four-face Type 346 radar with 48 HHQ-9 surface-to-air missiles carried in eight six-round cold-launch revolver systems. It also carries eight YJ-62 anti-ship missiles, a 100 mm gun, two Type 730 close-in weapon systems, torpedoes and one anti-submarine helicopter. The basic hull derives from the Type 052B, while its propulsion combines Ukrainian-origin gas turbines with licence-built German-designed diesels.

Only six ships were produced, in two batches separated by a lengthy construction pause. Open sources associate that interruption with both Jiangnan Shipyard's relocation and efforts to correct early radar and propulsion problems. The class is therefore best understood as both an operational warship and a transitional technology demonstrator: it established the PLAN's modern air-defence-destroyer architecture, but its restricted missile magazine and immature early systems were superseded by the more flexible Type 052D.

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