Dual Signals: The First Live-Fire Exercise of the Type 055 Destroyer in the Eastern Theater and the Deep Logic of the 14th Five-Year Plan's Intelligent Warfare Strategy

In late March 2026, the naval forces of the Eastern Theater Command of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) reached a noteworthy milestone that deserves in-depth examination. According to a report by the PLA Daily on March 29, two new Type 055 guided-missile destroyers—Dongguan (hull number 109) and Anqing (hull number 110)—affiliated with the East China Sea Fleet completed their first live-fire training shortly after being officially commissioned. The exercise included defensive interception of fast aerial targets in a strong electromagnetic interference environment, as well as multi-wave saturation strikes against surface vessels of the enemy that evade pursuit by utilizing islands and reefs. This event not only marks a significant milestone in the initial combat capability of the two warships but also directly reflects the accelerated integration of the joint operational system of the PLA Eastern Theater Command.

From a strategic geographical perspective, the first deployment of Type 055 destroyers to the Eastern Theater Command holds considerable significance. Previously, this class of ship was primarily concentrated in the Northern Theater Command, while the Eastern Theater Command is responsible for operations towards Taiwan and the East China Sea against Japan. A senior officer from the Eastern Theater Command explicitly stated in an interview with the PLA Daily that the two ships will accelerate their integration into the joint operational system of the Eastern Theater Command. The Type 055 has a displacement of approximately 12,000 tons and is equipped with a 112-cell vertical launch system, capable of simultaneously addressing aerial, surface, underwater, and land targets, and is regarded by Western analysts as a main battle ship nearly at the cruiser level. It is reported that the batch to which Dongguan and Anqing belong is equipped with more advanced electronic warfare and command systems compared to earlier Type 055 models.

The timing of this exercise is also intriguing. Last November, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi made a statement suggesting that Japan might conduct military intervention in the event of a conflict in the Taiwan Strait, leading to renewed tensions in Sino-Japanese relations. Against this backdrop, the two advanced destroyers, which are aimed at the Taiwan Strait and East China Sea, completed live-fire drills and were publicly reported by official media, sending a clear signal. This represents a strategic deterrent action operating within the gray zone, conveying specific messages through routine training reports.

However, focusing solely on these two destroyers makes it difficult to grasp the macro logic of the PLA's modernization efforts. Just days before the announcement of the live-fire drills, China officially adopted the outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development (2026-2030). This plan was reviewed and approved during the fourth session of the 14th National People's Congress held from March 5 to 12, 2026, and the military modernization section explicitly proposed accelerating the integrated development of mechanization, informationization, and intelligentization, listing artificial intelligence, unmanned autonomous systems, and networked information infrastructure as core construction directions.

The military provisions in the 15th Five-Year Plan continue and deepen the framework of the intelligent warfare concept established during the 14th Five-Year Plan period. The core logic of this framework is that the outcome of future wars will depend on the speed of information processing and the compression of decision-making chains, rather than merely the number of platforms or firepower density. PLA strategic scholars describe this as competition in the cognitive domain, where battlefield advantages are gained through algorithm-assisted decision-making, unmanned swarm operations, and dominance of the electromagnetic spectrum before the enemy completes battlefield perception and command transmission. The planning text also includes expressions of fighting, preparing for war, and building simultaneously, indicating that military construction is no longer a separate task in peacetime but a continuous process synchronized with real strategic competition.

When juxtaposing the live-fire exercises of the Type 055 destroyers in the Eastern Theater Command with the intelligent military strategy of the 15th Five-Year Plan, both reveal a dual-track approach to the PLA's capability building: on one hand, continuously strengthening the operational integration of high-end platforms, and on the other, systematically advancing the top-level architecture of informationization and intelligentization. The former is an external manifestation of recent combat readiness capabilities, while the latter represents a medium- to long-term strategic layout aimed at achieving the goal of basic modernization of national defense and the military by 2035.

For defense planners in the region, the expansion of the Type 055 fleet to the Eastern Theater Command and the institutionalization of the PLA's intelligent warfare strategy together constitute a complex strategic assessment variable. Simple platform comparison analysis is no longer sufficient to comprehensively grasp the substantive progress of the PLA's modernization; the more important question is how these high-end platforms will be integrated into a new operational system based on artificial intelligence-assisted decision-making and multi-domain joint command. This may be the core issue that warrants continued attention in the evolution of the regional military landscape over the next five years.

Source: PLA Daily (March 29, 2026), Janes Defence Weekly, China's 15th Five-Year Plan and the PLA's Transformation to Intelligent Warfare, South China Morning Post, Type 055 Destroyers of the East China Sea Fleet Complete First Live-Fire Exercise (March 2026)