China launched its most powerful naval warship – Type 055 – Wednesday, one of the world’s largest warships. China is preparing four such warships, the first of which was publicly displayed on Shanghai Shipworld on Wednesday morning.
On being fully armed, the giant type 055 battleship with a weight of more than 12,000 tonnes is much bigger and more powerful than the latest Indian Project – 15B ‘Visakhapatnam’ class warship – which has not yet been included in the Indian Army. India’s state-of-the-art battleships are also fully equipped to achieve 8,200 tonnes, and they can be equipped with 50 missiles capable of surface-to-air, anti-ship and land attacks. On the other hand, a total of about 120 missiles will be deployed on this huge warship in China, due to which it becomes one of the world’s most armed warships.
Very powerful array radar will help it focus on goals in sea, earth and air. This new huge warship is the most sophisticated in all the warships that China has ever included in its army. It is worth mentioning that in the last five years, China has included several new modern warships in its forces at very fast speed. According to PLA Realtalk, an open-source online platform that discusses China’s military development, “Type 055 is expected to provide more modern and more capable command and control and war management systems than ever before.
Since March, 2014, China has added five type 52D warships to its army, which is considered to be equivalent to the warships of India’s ‘Visakhapatnam’ class in terms of capacity. It is also worrisome for India that while India plans to build seven such warships, China is working on the plan of at least 18 warships in this class.
Earlier this year, China had launched its first indigenously built aircraft carrier, which was started in November 2013. India’s own aircraft carrier ‘Vikrant’ (named after the country’s first aircraft carrier), has been developing since 2009. For the first time, it was launched in the year 2011, but according to the previous year’s report, there is no scope for completion before 2023.
China is currently engaged in warfare with the US about its presence on the man-made islands in the disputed region of South China Sea. India is a very important ally in terms of naval cooperation for the US, and is also very concerned about the expansion of the Chinese army, especially in the Indian Ocean. China has been continuously deploying submarines (including nuclear submarines), warships and auxiliary vessels in the Indian Ocean in the last five years.
In January this year, the head of the American Pacific Command, Admiral Harry Harris Jr. had said, “I believe that India should be concerned with the growing Chinese influence … If you think that its impact in this area is somewhat limited, So whatever effect China has, the impact is not of India.
