The Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) is the naval branch of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), the armed forces of the People's Republic of China. The PLAN force consists of approximately 384,000 men and women and over a four hundred combat vessels (excluding auxiliary ships), organized into three fleets: the North Sea Fleet, the East Sea Fleet, and the South Sea Fleet.

The People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) uses different types of modern naval weaponry including different models of artillery, torpedoes, and missiles, each geared to a specific threat range and type.

History Throughout its early history from 1949 to the early 1980s, the PLAN had principally relied upon artillery and anti-ship torpedoes as its main weapons. This resulted in the development of many types and calibers of anti-aircraft and anti-ship guns. Torpedoes were secondary weapons, playing an important role in PLAN's coastal defense doctrines. Now, many destroyers, frigates and corvettes of the PLAN all carry an array of anti-submarine torpedoes.

The adoption of the missile, like in most navies, has completely revolutionized Chinese naval capabilities and tactics. Also, there has been growing attention given to ASW, electronic, and airborne weaponry.

The Cultural Revolution was a major disruption to many weapons development programs of the PLAN. Advanced weaponry concepts were always in the minds of PLAN thinkers since the 1950s, even if they were unable to be implemented at the time. Therefore, a lot of modern weapon systems such as SAMs, modernized torpedoes and missile/sensor systems were not introduced into service until the early 1980s. Furthermore, economic and technical sophistication to produce the fire control, targeting systems, and tracking capabilities were not in place until the mid-1980s.

Ships and aircraft

The People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) operates the largest naval fleet in the world by the number of commissioned vessels. The PLAN is rapidly building and commissioning new naval ships. PLAN operates more than 400 vessels without auxiliary ships. Various auxiliary ships together number more than 200. In 2023, the People's Liberation Army Navy Air Force (PLANAF) transferred land-based maritime bombers and most land-based fighter units to the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF), including at least 3 fighter brigades, 2 bomber regiments, 3 radar brigades, 3 air defense brigades, and some airbases. It retained its carrier aircraft, helicopters, a land-based fighter brigade with J-11B/BS, UAVs and other special purpose aircraft. The Navy is currently focused on carrier- and ship-based aircraft instead of land-based aircraft due to its growing aircraft carrier fleet.

List of active ship classes

7 Strategic ballistic missile submarines: Type 094 (6), Type 032 (1) 12-14 Nuclear-powered attack submarines: Type 093B (6–8), Type 093A (4), Type 093 (2) ≥48 Conventionally powered attack submarines: Type 039A/B/C (≥21), Kilo-class (10), Type 039 / 039G (13), Type 035B (4) 3 Aircraft Carriers: Type 003 (1), Type 002 (1), Type 001 (1) 5 Amphibious Assault Ships & Drone Carriers: Type 076 (1), Type 075 (4) 8 Amphibious Transport Docks: Type 071 (8) 61 Destroyers: Type 055 (10), Type 052D (35), Type 052C (6), Type 051C (2), Project 956EM (2), Project 956E (2), Type 051B (1), Type 052B (2), Type 052 (2) 54 Frigates: Type 054B (2), Type 054A (42), Type 054 (2), Type 053H3 (8) 50 Corvettes: Type 056A (50) 60 Missile boats: Type 022 (60)

List of active aircraft

Airborne early warning and control: Xi'an KJ-600 Shaanxi KJ-500 Fighters (multirole, strike, EW): J-35, J-15, J-11 Helicopters (ASW, AEW, transport): Z-20, Z-18, Z-9, Z-8, Ka-31, Ka-28, Ka-27, Mi-8 Maritime patrol and ASW aircraft: Y-9, Y-8 Transport aircraft: CRJ200, CRJ700, Y-5, Y-7, Y-8

Missiles

The PLAN has four main categories of missiles: anti-ship missiles (anti-ship cruise missiles and anti-ship ballistic missiles), anti-submarine missiles, surface-to-air missiles and land-attack missiles. The PLAN operates cruise and ballistic missiles launched from ships, ground platforms, aircraft, and submarines to engage enemy surface ships and land targets. It also operates torpedo-armed anti-submarine missiles from surface ships.

Anti-ship and anti-submarine missiles

The PLAN current inventory mostly includes domestic missile models and some Russian missile models. The missile had been an ever-evolving component of PLAN weaponry since the late 1950s. The Soviet Union's assistance to Chinese military developments included the P-15 Termit (SS-N-2 Styx) anti-ship missile technology. Since the 1960s, China has manufactured its own models of anti-ship missile based on the SS-N-2 Styx, in the form of HY-1, SY-1, SY-2, and other airborne and ground-launched systems. The oldest designs have since been phased out. The fundamental shortcoming of missiles based on the SS-N-2 Styx are being short-ranged (only 40–100 km), slow, low in agility, and is rather large and easily detectable targets for modern SAM and CIWS. Later Chinese variants have vastly superior electronics, radar guidance and performance to the older Soviet models. As China has normalized its relationship with the former Soviet Union and then Russia, the importation of Russian missiles resumed, and a new generation of Russian anti-ship missiles have been imported, including the supersonic P-270 Moskit (SS-N-22) and submarine-launched version of the Klub-S.

China's first completely indigenous anti-ship missile program were the YJ-8 series. This missile externally appears similar to the French Exocet and American Harpoon, but is essentially a Chinese designed weapon system. The basic YJ-8 appeared in the early 1980s, with a short range of 22 miles (40 or so km). Unlike older designs, the YJ-8 could attack targets at low altitudes to reduce its vulnerability against defensive systems. Several models of the YJ-8 have since emerged. The YJ-81 is an air-launched variant and the submarine-launched variant of YJ-8 is YJ-82.Gormley et al.: page 16 The latest variant of YJ-8 is YJ-83, with a range of 180 km. In addition, YJ-82KD has ground attack capabilities.

The Chinese navy continues to prioritize anti‑surface warfare in its force modernization. Its frigates, corvettes along with upgraded older warships are armed with the YJ‑83 or YJ‑83J anti‑ship cruise missiles. The missile has a range of about 135 nautical miles (250 km). Newer 6 Type 052C (LUYANG II-class ) destroyers carry the longer‑range YJ-62 subsonic anti-ship cruise missiles, capable of striking targets out to 270 nautical miles (500 km). The latest Type 052D (Luyang III‑class) and Type 055 (Renhai‑class) destroyers deploy the YJ‑18A, with an estimated range of 290 nautical miles (537 km) and a terminal speed of Mach 2.5-3.0 to penetrate ship defenses. Several older but modernized destroyers have been retrofitted with the supersonic YJ-12A (270 nautical miles/500 km).

Within the submarine fleet, eight Kilo-class submarines employ the Russian‑built SS‑N‑27b, which can reach 120 nautical miles (222 km). China's indigenous Type 039 submarine (Song‑class) diesel‑electric submarines, Type 039A, B and C (Yuan‑class) AIP-equipped diesel‑electric attack submarines and Type 093 (Shang‑class) nuclear‑powered attack submarines carry the submarine‑launched version of thr YJ‑18 anti‑ship missile. Reports also indicate that China may be developing a containerized launcher for the YJ‑18, enabling covert deployment aboard merchant vessels.

Supersonic anti-ship missiles have been a key development in China. The Russian made ramjet-powered SS-N-22 Sunburn supersonic anti-ship missiles were operated by China on board its Sovremenny class destroyers until replaced by the Chinese made supersonic anti-ship missile YJ-12. China is currently producing both supersonic and hypersonic anti-ship missiles. China also leads in the field of hypersonic missiles. High speed missiles are seen as one of the most effective means of attacking modern warships. Only a few countries have so far successfully developed and deployed such weapons. Earlier unsuccessful Chinese supersonic anti-ship missiles were HY-3 (export version C-301) and C-101.

Some examples of advanced Chinese anti-ship missiles of today are the YJ-12, YJ-15, YJ-17, YJ-18, YJ-19, YJ-20 and YJ-21. Among those missiles, YJ-18 anti-ship missile accelerates from subsonic to supersonic speeds when it is close to its target; YJ-12 and YJ-15 are supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles; YJ-19 is a hypersonic anti-ship cruise missile; YJ-20 and YJ-21 are hypersonic anti-ship ballistic missiles; YJ-17 is a hypersonic anti-ship aeroballistic missile, featuring a hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV) warhead.

Multiple Chinese made anti-ship missiles of the PLAN have air-launched variants. Those missiles are operated by the People's Liberation Army Navy Air Force and the People's Liberation Army Air Force. The PLAN's air force has also purchased anti-ship and anti-radiation (anti-radar) variants of the Kh-31 ramjet-powered supersonic missiles.Gormley et al.: page 22

PLAN also developed several modern anti-submarine missiles such as CY-5. Those are missiles that carried a torpedo as its warhead.Chinese Defence Today - CY-1 Anti-Submarine Rocket PLAN forces ASW capabilities also improved with the introduction of Variable Depth Sonar (VDS), which is mounted on surface ships.

Current anti-ship missiles

YJ-7Gormley et al.: page 18 YJ-12 YJ-15 YJ-17 YJ-18 YJ-19 YJ-20 YJ-21 YJ-62 YJ-83 YJ-91A

Current anti-submarine missiles

CJ-1 CY-1 CY-2 CY-3 CY-4 CY-5 Yu-8

Anti-ship missiles no longer in use C-101 Silkworm family (older versions) YJ-8

Surface-to-air missiles (SAM)

China's People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) currently operates multiple types of surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems. During Cold War era, the navy had long lacked an air defense missile system, hence why it has been a major area of weakness. China's SAM development had been seriously jeopardized by the Cultural Revolution, and the break away from the Soviet Union meant that no Soviet assistance in air defense missiles was given. The first Chinese-made naval SAM system was the HQ-61, originally a short-range land-based system. The SAM system was installed on only a few ships of the PLAN. The first PLAN ship to be armed with SAM was the Type 053K frigate Yingtan, launched in 1970. However it took many years for the design to mature and the obsolete system was never ideal for naval operations. The Jiangdong had two twin launchers of the HQ61 SAM. The missile was capable of engaging enemy air targets out to 10 km. The four Type 053H2G frigates (Jiangwei I) were armed with a six tube launcher. The weakness, however, was lack of automatic reload systems, so the crew had to manually reload.

When China opened up in the late 1970s, it had greater access to Westernized technologies. One vital asset imported was the French Crotale short-ranged SAM. Two systems were initially imported and mounted aboard two Luda class destroyers. The design was subsequently indigenized into the HQ-7. The improved-Luda, Luhu, Luhai, Jiangwei II, and 054 class warships. The launcher is an eight-celled system, with a reload hatch, which has additional missiles below deck. Its engagement range is 10–12 km and is claimed to be capable of engaging low-flying missiles and aircraft.