( KWIC news January 08 Yihong Zhang ) The year of 1999 will be a crucial year for China in its expansion of military armaments, especially in the area of its navy and air force. As a response to the call from Jiang Zemin that the Chinese army should turn from quantity-intensive to quality-intensive by the end of this century and the beginning of the next, efforts have been made to expedite the equipment of the Chinese army with various weapons and devices within this year.
By KWIC According to the source of the Japanese military watcher, the latest Luhai-class missile destroyer of the Chinese navy passed the trial voyage in October of 1998 and has now been put to use. It is the largest Chinese-made destroyer in the vessel building history of China. When fully loaded, the destroyer has a disenbarkment of over 6000 tons. It is equipped with the latest Chinese-made VLS for the ship-to-air missiles and sixteen C802 ship-to-ship missiles with a range of 120 kilometers. The increase in its range for the air defence purpose enables the destroyer to have a better marine fighting capability. In comparison, the escort vessels of the Japanese Navy are normally equipped with only eight US-made Hapoon ship-to-ship missiles with a range of 120-130 kilometers. It is estimated that China will produce at least one more large Luhai-class destroyer by the end of this century and this destroyer will be used together with the two 7000-ton Modern-class destroyers imported from Russia. Thus, by the end of the century, the Chinese navy will have possessed four over-6000-ton large destroyers.
With the Chinese-made SU27 fighter planes and the largest Luhai-class destroyers successively put to use, the Chinese army will definitely see an obvious advancement in the quality of its equipment ( Yihong Zhang ).
