China’s Type 051C gets a refit as the PLA Navy’s legacy warships near retirement
Destroyer’s outdated Russian-built equipment appears to have been replaced with domestic air defence systems in sea trial images
Witness photographs circulating on social media appear to show the Shenyang, hull number 115 and lead ship of the Type 051C class, with its Russian-made hardware replaced by domestic air defence systems.
The Shenyang’s Russian 30N6E1 Tomb Stone phased-array radar and six 8-cell S-300FM long-range air defence missile vertical launch systems (VLS) reportedly have been removed in favour of four HQ-10 short-range systems, similar to those on smaller Type 054A frigates.
