The well-known defense magazine Military Watch reveals that Chinese President Xi Jinping (who was in Moscow yesterday) plans to deliver Chinese-made advanced anti-ship missiles to Putin, causing serious upheaval in the EU and the US.
The United States is convinced that only China can help Moscow quickly solve the long-standing problems of the Russian fleet.
Russian intelligence reports that two Kunming-class 052D guided missile destroyers (NATO designation Luyang III) were built simultaneously at the shipyard in the Chinese city of Dalian.
Of the five similar warships still under construction, three are being prepared for operational launch missions in the Yellow Sea in the coming months, but not the other two.
This fact has irritated the US, which does not rule anything out.
In any case, the American specialized publication Military Watch Magazine insists that the specific Chinese Type 052D Destroyers may have been created not so much for the interests of the Chinese Navy, but for export to other countries.
Today in the Chinese fleet there are already 26 of these very modern and powerful warships with a total displacement of 7.5 thousand tons.
In a word, according to the magazine, the Chinese Navy itself does not need additional Type 052D destroyers.
The information says in the Dalyan shipyards, the Chinese are building these Destroyers for some other customer.
The Americans' concerns are not unfounded, for a warship that is "comparable to the American AEGIS Destroyers.
Why would Russia need Chinese Type 052D class destroyers?
After the collapse of the USSR, Russia, which lost its previous technological capabilities in building large warships, was unable to build a single surface ship larger than a frigate.
The most serious project in Russian shipyards is the multi-purpose frigates of the Admiral Goshkov type of project 22350.
Each of them is almost twice smaller in size than the aforementioned Kunming. However, the Russian Navy has so far received only two such frigates.
The third Admiral Golovko, is undergoing a series of tests, scheduled to be completed by the middle of this year.
As the American magazine points out, since the summer of 2020, at the Zaliv plant in Kerch, Russia continues the construction of two large project 23900 landing ships, named Ivan Rogov and Mitrofan Moskalenko, with a total displacement of up to 40 thousand tons, and the ability to land up to 1000 marines.
These ships will have 24 helicopters and four large S-70 Okhotnik attack UAVs.
In the design of these Russian amphibious ships of project 23900, many authoritative experts clearly see the "French" trace of the amphibious MISTRAL.
The Russian Destroyer construction plan of project 23560 "Leader", remained in the plans as seen.
Therefore, the Americans believe, Moscow's only real move in this direction is to procure warships from the Chinese.
Acquiring a batch of simply excellent Type 052D destroyers from Beijing would help solve Moscow's problem quickly.
At the same time, American experts believe that the Russians and the Chinese may agree to equip the acquired ships with advanced Russian Zircon missiles, in 64 cells with a vertical launch system.
Potentially, this will immediately make such ships the most powerful in the world, and in a few years will solve many problems of the Russian Navy.
But how to pay for the destroyers in Beijing in the midst of a difficult economic situation in Russia?
But with natural gas and oil that are already being transported from Russia to China.
By the way, Washington probably suspects that Vladimir Putin and his high-ranking Chinese guest may have agreed on this whole plan in the Kremlin yesterday.
In any case, it is no coincidence that on February 19, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and UN Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield issued separate warnings that any moves by China to supply weapons to neighboring Russia would be seen by Washington as "Red line"
Of course, even if Putin and Si had decided that Moscow would buy Chinese destroyers, it would take a long time to train Russian crews (unless Russian crews are already in China and training for some time).
"It is possible that Russia will buy Chinese warships, since the issue has long been in the background between the two countries.
It is no coincidence that in 2019, during a visit to the Qingdao naval base of the Chinese PLA Navy, the Varyag missile cruiser, the Admiral Vinogradov BOD and the Boris Butoma tanker, Russian sailors were invited to the Chinese destroyer Xining for the first time," says the Russian expert Sergey Isenko.
As the local press reported, the Russians were particularly impressed by the "Sinina" cruise missile vertical launch system.
In October 2021, the Chinese edition of NetEase wrote that Beijing was ready to make a "tempting offer" to Moscow, that is, to offer destroyers (including the most advanced Type 055) and Type 075 helicopter carriers in exchange for strategic construction technology of Tu-160 "White Swan" missile-carrying aircraft.
