Type-052D Kunming

Type-052D DDG,No.172 Kunming, went into service at morning Mar 21, 2014 to South Sea fleet

Type-052D, 130mm Gun

At 160m long and 18m wide, the Type-052D is slightly larger than its predecessor, the Type 052C, and is believed to weigh just over 6,000 tonnes. Reports indicate the vessel will use a Type 346 Active Phased Array Radar System and a Type 518 L-band long-range radar.
Meanwhile, the main 100mm gun on the Type 052C, reportedly unreliable, appears to have been replaced by a new PJ-38 130mm gun. The vessel also comes with a helicopter-landing platform and close-in weapon systems.
According to China Military News, the new destroyer comes with two 32-unit vertical launch systems capable of launching HQ-9B air-defense missiles, anti-ship and anti-submarine missiles. The original YJ-62 missile launchers used on the Type 052C do not appear to be present on the new DDG.
It has been speculated that the Type 052D could be equipped with a navalized version of the DH-10 land-attack cruise missile.

The US fifth-generation F-35 stealth fighter can be detected by the radar system installed aboard the People's Liberation Army Navy's new Type 052D destroyers, according to the Moscow-based Voice of Russia, citing military experts.
Vladimir Evseev, director of the Moscow-based Center for Social and Political Studies, told the Russian broadcaster that details of China's radar project, including the amount spent on its development, remain unknown, however it is a great leap forward in regards to the nation's military modernization program.
China has encountered a lot of obstacles in its attempts to develop its own radar system, but it has managed to overcome these issues with Russian help, Voice of Russia said, citing Konstantin Sivkov, director of the Russian Academy for Geopolitical Issues.
Sivkov said that the most crucial part of China's success is that the PLA Navy finally knows how to handle active electronically scanned array radar systems. With this technology, Chinese destroyers are able to track and shoot down F-35 fighters from a distance of 350 kilometers.
Meanwhile, Pavel Zolotaryov, deputy head of Institute for USA and Canada Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said that the Chinese warship not only has the ability to locate the US stealth fighter but can also deploy countermeasures against the fighter's electronic interference capability.
The new system will gradually increase the combat capability of the PLA Navy in Western Pacific region, Voice of Russia said.

Comparison between 052D’s 32-tube VLS for various kinds of missiles and 052C’s 36-tube VLS for air-defense missiles only.

DDG1000. USS Zumwalt 1

DDG1000. USS Zumwalt 2

The US has recently scrapped its plan to produce DDG1000 destroyers as the mainstay of its navy because DDG1000 is not significantly superior to Type 052D.
DDG1000 is advanced mainly in its vertical launch system (VLS) and radar. However, when China’s first Type 052D was commissioned on March 21, 2014, its more details have been revealed to show its VSL is by no means inferior to DDG1000’s.
A launch tube in 052D’s VLS can launch and control 4 different kinds of missiles, including air-defense, anti-ship, anti-submarine and ship-to-ground missiles of different sizes.
The maximum diameter of the missile is 850 mm, bigger than DDG1000’s MK41 VLS.
Unlike US VLS only capable of hot launch or Russian VLS, cold launch, 052D’s VLS tubes are capable of both cold and hot launches of missiles and they also have CCL devices so that the smoke in hot launching of a missile is discharged through a concentric tube.
There are separate launch control electronic equipment for the control of each missile launched to simplify the procedures of control so that there are no longer the complicated control procedures of multi-layer transmission of information and orders.
The new type active phased array radar used on 052D now has a liquid cooling system instead of the air cooling system in Type 346 phased array radar on 052C that has a curved case to increase the area of contact for cooling.
In the new radar, liquid goes through the antenna for cooling. As a liquid cooling system has bigger cooling capacity and the contact area is bigger in the antenna array, the new radar must have greater power and better sustained performance.
Due to the above-mentioned advanced equipment and functions, a DDG1000 is better than 052D only in bigger displacement and 26 more launch tubes. However, designing 12,000-ton Type 055 destroyer bigger than DDG1000. When 055 is commissioned, DDG1000 will be inferior.
Therefore the US has to scrap its DDG1000 plan and decides to produce 10 Virginia class submarines and spent $11.4 billion to produce unmanned long-range bombers to deal with China’s new destroyers.
In the past, the US always believed that it always had the newest ideas in weapon development, but now it seems to be China’s turn.
The most serious problem is that the US remains outdated in sticking to its Air-Sea Battle strategy while for a decade, China has adopted the space-era strategy for the development of integrated space and air capabilities.
Source: huanqiu.com “Preeminant new VLS makes Type 052D destroyer rival to US DDG1000” and “Exposure of 052D destroyer’s mystic radar with overall performance better than existing one in US navy” (summary by Chan Kai Yee)