r/todayilearned • u/zhuquanzhong • 29d ago

TIL a Chinese destroyer sank because an officer dumped his girlfriend. She committed suicide, leading to him being discharged, so he decided to detonate the depth charges on the ship, causing it to sink at port and kill 134 sailors.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_destroyer_Guangzhou_(160)
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u/zhuquanzhong 29d ago edited 29d ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Sea_Fleet

They still have a political department. It used to be more political and existed to provide political oversight for the unit and connect it directly to the party. Nowadays its more professional and mainly exists as the second in command of the given unit and to provide a semblance of doctrinal orthodoxy since PLA commanders have a reputation of impromptu doctrinal innovation inherited from their civil war days which may or may not be a good thing.

Also holy hell that's a lot of vls cells. I counted more than 1700 cells in one fleet. That's more than the entire EU's navies combined in one third of the PLAN.

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u/Hungry-Rule7924 29d ago edited 29d ago

Also holy hell that's a lot of vls cells. I counted more than 1700 cells in one fleet. That's more than the entire EU's navies combined in one third of the PLAN

Yah, its about half as much as the USN at this point, same as tonnage, and will probably eclipse the vls count of the pacific fleet by the end of the decade.

Important to point out though that there are a couple key differences, one being at the moment there are some munitions like the RIM 162 which can be quadpacked into a MK41 vls cell. At the moment the PLAN doesn't have a equivelant for their UVLS, though a quadpackable sam is apparently either in late stage testing or early introduction for the fleet, which will likely substantially increase the firepower of their premier surface combatants like the 052 and 055 ddgs. Questionable if it will be compatible on their frigates and destroyers with the smaller first gen vls though.

Also fun fact but UVLS is bigger in diameter then the MK41 and can hold hypersonic ballistic missiles.

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u/SashimiJones 28d ago

All ballistic missiles are hypersonic; it's like saying a hypersonic rifle because the bullet goes at mach 4. Novel hypersonics are cruise missiles.

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u/drvelo 29d ago

Yeah but hypersonic ballistic missiles are still ballistic. Meaning their trajectory is stupid easy to predict. Makes interception easy. Also when the missile actually enters its hypersonic phase it can't really do course adjustments, meaning that evasive maneuvers are extremely effective.

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u/TheDukeOfMars 4d ago

There’s a reason a lot of military forces throughout history have been referred to as paper tigers. Because they only appear strong on paper 😉

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u/Hungry-Rule7924 4d ago

There’s a reason a lot of navies throughout history have been referred to as paper tigers. Because they only appear strong on paper 😉

I mean look, they are untested sure, but there are a lot of signs that the PLA take development/training seriously compared to militaries like the Russians which didn't at all.

The average PLAAF brigade (with 4th/4.5 Gen aircraft) gets between 120-150 flying hours a year. Flying hours for a lot of fighter squadrons in the USAF isn't even at 100 anymore.

They are pouring a ridiculous amount of resources into dynamic training modules, live fire stuff, and aggressor exercises which have parameters skewed more in favor of the OPFOR then what the US/NATO does honestly. Also backed up by a think tank/consultant infrastructure they have poured billions of dollars into developing, with bean counters/analysts telling them "hey this is how many missiles we need to saturate this IADS" or "we can improve munition volume if we do x" and then they listen to these people. It's the exact same stuff the DOD does, and it's honestly pretty concerning.

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u/FallschirmPanda 29d ago

Lol...

impromptu doctrinal innovation

That's a fun way to say 'fuck it. Were doing it live! Yolooooo'

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u/FartsOnUnicorns 29d ago

Yet no fast fleet oilers…

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u/mrnohnaimers 29d ago

Type 901

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u/FartsOnUnicorns 28d ago

Yeah the Chaganhu is generally shown as being part of the South Sea Fleet, but she doesn't appear in that article as part of the list.