BEIJING (Realist English). China has unveiled a major leap in its naval warfare capability, confirming that its most advanced destroyer, the Type 055-class Lhasa, is now fully integrated into a battlefield-wide sensor network, allowing it to engage targets beyond visual range with high precision. The announcement, made by state broadcaster CCTV on Sunday, highlights Beijing’s continued investment in joint-force digital combat systems.
The Lhasa, a stealth guided-missile destroyer commissioned in 2021, took part in a live-fire exercise under the PLA’s Northern Theatre Command, where it used real-time targeting data from airborne early warning platforms to guide its missile strikes. The integration allows the ship to identify and strike aerial and maritime threats far beyond the line of sight, without relying solely on its onboard radar systems.
“We used data links to share battlefield awareness in real time with the early warning aircraft, significantly expanding our detection range,” said Senior Sergeant Wang Mingwei aboard the Lhasa. “It allows us to identify both air and sea threats far beyond visual range.”
Military commentator Song Zhongping, a former PLA instructor, described the development as a milestone in “situation connectivity,” the PLA’s concept for sensor fusion across platforms. He noted the strategy mirrors Pakistan’s 2022 operation near Kashmir, where Chinese-supplied systems enabled J-10CE fighter jets to launch long-range PL-15E missiles guided mid-flight by airborne radar, evading Indian defenses.
CCTV referred to the approach as “A-detect, B-launch, C-guide” — a method that allows sensors, shooters, and support platforms to work as a single distributed network. Song emphasized that similar integration aboard the Lhasa now allows the PLA Navy to “strike first, deep, and with precision.”
Armed with a naval variant of the HQ-9B air-defense system, the Lhasa can now counter even low-flying, sea-skimming threats by using shared targeting data to overcome limitations in ground-based radar caused by Earth’s curvature. The destroyer also supports advanced missiles like the supersonic YJ-18 and hypersonic YJ-21, extending China’s long-range strike envelope to over 1,000 km.
Song drew comparisons to the U.S. military’s “mosaic warfare” doctrine — a 2017 concept for building modular, adaptive networks across all combat domains. “What the PLA has demonstrated with the Type 055 reflects the principles of mosaic warfare,” he said. “This is modern joint warfare in action.”
The Lhasa, weighing 12,000 tonnes and equipped with 112 vertical launch cells and dual-band AESA radar, plays a key role in China’s naval modernization. Analysts believe its networked capabilities position it as a central asset in any future conflict across the Taiwan Strait or South China Sea.
