Is there any truth to the report below? Was the 052D in the Baltic Sea a replacement? It was reported on 9th July by East Pendulum but I have not seen any from other news media. Fake news?
Online news outlet East Pendulum said Chinese Type 052D frigate DDG-173 CHANGSHA broke down in Indian ocean while en route to Baltic sea, to take part in joint China-Russia naval exercise Joint Sea 2017. East Pendulum is referring to an anonymous China military source. CHANGSHA, according to East Pendulum, suffered propulsion failure and is drifting since at least June 26, with replenishment ship LUOMAHU (Qiandaohu-class or Type 903, displacement 23.400) nearby. A Chinese squadron to take part in Baltic sea exercises (which exercises already stirred some fears in Baltic States – Voytenko Mikhail), therefore, is reduced to frigates Hefei and Yuncheng only.
He Henri K has change his story since then Now he said that there is no failure but there is recall of the ship due to some disciplinary action Not sure what he meant
Henri K is not god. He is good when he just reporting it based on reliable sources. But he often make mistake too when he start speculating
Ten days ago, we have relayed a source according to which
, but could not confirm the information, for lack of institutional communications.
The only thing that is still certain today is that the 174
Hefei destroyer of the same class actually replaced it, to participate in the Sino-Russian naval exercise "Joint Sea 2017".
. But soon this first "disappeared" of official communications and it is his sistership 174
Hefei that continues to lead the other two ships to the joint exercise in St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad.
Currently the three buildings of the "new" Chinese fleet have already reached the North Sea. They were accompanied by the Dutch frigate HNLMS
Van Amstel on Monday in their crossing and heading for the Baltic Sea.
Only there is still no news on the track of the 173
Changsha , a ship of nearly 7,000 tons full load and one of the most advanced destroyers of the Chinese Navy.
While some Taiwanese media are applauding the possible damage to the Chinese destroyer, as an element to reassure themselves and to serve as evidence of the mediocrity of the quality "Made in China", another medium of the island has just evoked a Another possibility which seems equally plausible.
According to , Destroyer 173 Changsha was on June 18 from China for the Baltic Sea. But for some unknown reason the ship would never have left the South China Sea and would have turned back towards the Fiery Cross reef to return to the Zhejiang naval base, Vessel is affected, by sailing at a speed of "22 knots".
This speed of the ship thus seems to rule out any serious damage to the propulsion system as claimed by another Chinese source, quoted in our article of 8 July.
The same Taiwanese source assumes that this early return would be linked to the disciplinary investigations that are currently underway in the Chinese army, and that one or more Chinese destroyer or flotilla officials would be involved, forcing the Chinese navy To repatriate the whole ship and have it replaced by another of the same class.
On the basis of official communications, notably
from Sanya, the Chinese fleet is under the command of Vice Admiral YU Man Jiang (满江 满江) , Also deputy commander of the Southern Fleet. He is assisted by Vice Admiral FU Xiao Dong (傅晓东), Deputy Commissioner of the Southern Fleet Party and former Chief Judge of the Military Court of the Chinese Army, and LI Hui Flotilla Chief of Staff李辉).
