China's first warship with stealth technology served as the flagship in recent off-shore exercises of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy, the state media reported.
It is the first time that the ultra-modern warship has been made public, the Chinese military's official mouthpiece, the PLA Daily reported. "It marks a breakthrough in the country's warship building sector," the paper commented.
Iindependently designed and built, the destroyer is capable of accomplishing long-distance missions. Work on it began in late 2000, and experts involved in the project worked to make it as stealthy as possible, according to Navy sources.
Over 30 per cent of the equipment on the destroyer is newly developed, Xinhua news agency reported. Module technology was also used on the new warship, making China the third country to use the technology in warship-building.
Before the new destroyer was handed over to the Navy, it made a 9,000-sea mile test voyage lasting more than 120 days. Over 300 problems were found and rectified, the sources said. A blue water navy is a naval force which has deep ocean power projection.
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