The Long March 5 is China’s new-generation heavy-lift orbital launch system, designed to loft space station modules, lunar and Mars probes, and heavy communications satellites into orbit. The launch vehicle is available in two basic configurations, the Long March 5 with a two-stage core vehicle and four strap-on boosters, and the Long March 5B with a single-stage core vehicle and four strap-on boosters.
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Long March 5
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Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre
The Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre (JSLC), which first became operational in 1960, is China’s oldest missile test and space centre. It has been used for all of China’s human spaceflight missions since 2003. The space centre also has launch facilities to support satellite launches to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) using the liquid-fuelled CZ-2 and CZ-4, and solid-fuelled CZ-11 and KZ series launchers.
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Xichang Satellite Launch Centre
The Xichang Satellite Launch Centre (XSLC) is China’s spaceport for Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) and lunar missions. First becoming operational in April 1984, the launch centre has supported the CZ-3 series and the CZ-2E launch vehicles from its two launch pads. With the activation of the new Wenchang Space Launch Centre in 2016, launch operations from Xichang will gradually wind down and the centre will eventually become a backup launch site and for certain military missions only.
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Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre
The Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre (TSLC), which became operational in the late 1960s, is China’s primary ballistic missile test centre and also serves as an orbital launch facility for satellite missions to Sun-Synchronous Orbit (SSO) using the CZ-2C/D, CZ-4B/C, and CZ-6 launch vehicles. The centre is known as the 25th Test and Training Base (or Base 25) in its military designator, and has been referred to by the U.S military and intelligence as “Wuzhai Missile and Space Centre”.
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Wenchang Space Launch Centre
The Wenchang Space Launch Centre (WSLC) is China’s fourth and newest portal to space, capable of supporting the next-generation CZ-5 and CZ-7 launch vehicles. Becoming operational in 2016, the spaceport will be the primary launch site for all of China’s key space projects over the next few decades, including the construction of a permanently-manned space station on Low Earth Orbit (LEO), unmanned probing missions to the Moon and Mars, and potentially crewed lunar missions.
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Shuguang (Project 714)
China initiated a highly secretive project to send a crewed mission to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) in 1971. Under the programme, candidates were selected to receive astronaut training, and a two-seat crew capsule known as Shuguang 1 was proposed. However, technical and financial difficulties, coupled with the political turmoil throughout the country in the early 1970s, eventually led to a quiet cancellation of the plan.
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Long March 11
The Long March 11 is a four-stage, solid-propellant, small-load launch vehicle, capable of placing up to 350 kg payload to 700 km SSO, or up to 700 kg to LEO. The launcher has been designed with rapid-response capability, allowing it to be readied for launch within 24 hours. An improved variant will be capable of delivering 1,700 kg payload to orbit, and a sea-launched design has also been proposed. The launcher could also be turned into solid rocket boosters for a liquid-propellant heavy-lift orbital launch system.
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Shenzhou (Project 921-I)
China officially embarked on a human spaceflight programme (Project 921) in 1992, with the goal of constructing a permanently-occupied space station on LEO. The first phase of the programme run between 1992 and 2005, with the objective of developing a crewed spacecraft vehicle that can carry astronauts to orbit and then return them to Earth safely. On 15 October 2003, China’s first astronaut Yang Liwei flew on the Shenzhou 5 mission, making China the third country in the world, after Russia and the United States, to be capable of sending human into space independently.
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Shenzhou Spacecraft
The Shenzhou is a capsule-type, non-reusable spacecraft vehicle designed to carry up to three astronauts for a solo orbital flight of up to 7 days, or to ferry them to the space station and then return them to Earth. It can also be docked to the space station to serve as a ‘lift boat’. Launched atop the CZ-2F launch vehicle, the spacecraft was modelled after the Russian Soyuz-TM but slightly larger in size and has been developed mostly from Chinese technology.
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Type 051 Luda Class
The Type 051 (NATO code name: Luda class) is China’s first independently developed missile destroyer, with 17 hulls built between 1970 and 1991 for the PLA Navy. Decommission of the destroyer began in late 2007, with the last hull expected to be decommissioned by 2022.
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Type 052 Luhu Class
The Type 052 (Luhu class) is a multirole missile destroyer introduced in the early 1990s for the PLA Navy, with two hulls constructed. The destroyers served as a platform to experiment with the various indigenous and Western-made weapon systems, sensors, and propulsion, the technology of which was applied on the follow-on classes of surface combatants.
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Type 051B Luhai Class
Type 051B (Luhai class) is the multirole missile destroyer introduced in 1999, with only one hull ever constructed. The first-of-class Shenzhen (167) was the largest surface combatant ever commissioned by the PLA Navy at the time of its introduction. Despite its increase in size and displacement, the destroyer did not feature any significant improvement in weapon systems and sensors.
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Type 051C Luzhou Class
The Type 051C (Luzhou class) is an air-defence guided missile destroyer, utilising the Russian S-300FM air defence missile system controlled by the ‘Tomb Stone’ 3D phased-array radar. Only two hulls have been built to demonstrate the regional air defence capability and provide a stopgap before the similar indigenous system becomes available.
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Project 956 Sovremenny Class
China acquired two unfinished ex-Russian Navy Project 956 Sovremenny class destroyers in 1996 and received them in 1999 and 2000. These were followed the order for two newly-built Project 956EM destroyers in 2002, which were delivered in 2005 and 2006. At the time of their delivery, the Sovremenny class destroyers provided the PLA Navy with a capable platform that vastly exceeds the sizes and capabilities of Chinese domestic designs.
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Type 052B Luyang Class
The Type 052B (Luyang class) is a multirole missile destroyer built by the Shanghai-based Jiangnan Shipyard for the PLA Navy, with two hulls built. The destroyer has demonstrated the successful integration of Russian naval technologies and Ukrainian propulsion with Chinese indigenous systems, allowing these foreign-made contents (or their Chinese clones) to be incorporated on subsequent Chinese surface combatants.
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Type 052C Luyang-II Class
Nicknamed ‘Chinese Aegis’, the Type 052C (Luyang-II class) destroyers are the first truly multirole and highly capable, modern indigenous destroyers introduced by the PLA Navy. With a multifunctional active phased array radar, C3I combat system, VLS-launched air-defence system, and long-range ASCMs, the destroyers are regarded comparable in general performance and capability to the U.S. Arleigh Burke class and Japanese Kongo class DDG.
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Type 052D Luyang-III Class
First introduced into PLA Navy service in 2014, the Type 052D (NATO code name: Luyang-III class) is the latest variant of the Type 052 destroyer family, featuring a number of changes in weapon system and sensor over the previous Type 052C (Luyang-II class). As man as 12 hulls have been planned for the class, with 5 already commissioned as of January 2017.
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Type 055 Renhai Class
The Type 055 is a new class of multirole missile destroyer (DDG) currently under construction for the PLA Navy. The U.S. DoD has referred to the vessel as ‘Renhai’ class and classified it as a missile cruiser (CG) rather than destroyer. With an estimated displacement of 10,000 t, the Type 055 is the largest surface combatant ever introduced by the PLA Navy.
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Type 053H3 Jiangwei-II Class
The Type 053H3 (Jiangwei-II class) is the multirole missile frigate introduced in the 1990s as a follow-on to the Type 053H2G (Jiangwei class). Despite being known as a ‘multirole’ frigate, the Type 053 is only capable of coastal patrol role, with limited air defence and anti-submarine warfare capabilities.
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Type 054 Jiangkai Class
The Type 054 (Jiangkai class) multirole missile frigates were introduced by the PLA Navy in 2005. This class was primarily intended to validate the hull design of a new generation frigate, but still equipped with older weapon systems and sensors. They were succeeded by the more capable Type 054A (Jiangkai-II class).
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