A Chinese simulation allegedly showed that a single Type destroyer and escort could weather an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer missile bombardment. The war game was set in the western Pacific, just a few hundred kilometers east of Taiwan. During the simulation, a single Type was tested against no less than eight Arleigh Burke's. The Chinese destroyer was not alone; it was accompanied by unmanned drone mothership vessels. These motherships were equipped with 32 drones and 14 unmanned boats.
According to reports, Chinese vessels were able to detect incoming threats and launch countermeasures to intercept them. After a series of missile-on-missile interceptions, the Chinese destroyer and her escort remained utterly unscathed.
It was designed to showcase China's ambitions to change the nature of maritime conflict with the large-scale use of unmanned weapons. Reports on the game also point out that such an exchange would likely be much cheaper for China, with the cost of expended missiles costing the U.
But, as impressive as this war game sounds, it has some serious issues. The first is the choice of American ships for the games. The Arleigh Burke -class, while powerful, is an aging warship that first launched in the s. Each of these guided missile destroyers comes equipped with no less than 90 missiles and excels at anti-aircraft, anti-ship, and tactical land strikes. They are the United States Navy's foremost destroyer-class ships, with around seventy-four in active service.
These are scheduled for deployment by no later than , but details on the ship's capabilities have, understandably, not been made public. The Type destroyer is much newer launched in and is believed to be the largest of her class in the world and one of the most advanced.
