Video | Missile Launch Cold and Hot Compatibility: The "Chocolate Block" on the Ten-Thousand-Ton Destroyer is Full of Value

The Type 055 destroyer is the "king of firepower" in the People's Navy destroyer family. Its main firepower comes from its missile system.

Naval Officer Wang Liang from the Yan'an: Look at these "chocolate blocks," this system can load various types of missiles to conduct strikes against air, land, and sea targets. The common launch system for multiple types of missiles and torpedoes solves the compatibility issue of different munitions. Our Type 055 ship has a leading position in the world in terms of onboard missile capacity.

The hundreds of vertical launch units on the ship can mix-load different types of missiles such as air defense missiles, anti-ship missiles, anti-submarine missiles, and land attack missiles, making it the destroyer with the largest missile carrying capacity among our country's destroyers.

Among them, the air defense missiles have both long-range air defense and anti-missile capabilities, able to accurately intercept incoming aerial targets, whether they are fighter jets, cruise missiles, or even ballistic missiles, all of which find it difficult to escape their strike range. The anti-ship missiles have a long range and great power, capable of delivering devastating strikes against enemy surface vessels.

Cold launch, hot launch? Universal launch!

Military Expert Ge Lide: We have achieved common launch for missiles, which is also a technical challenge. Because different missiles have hot launch and cold launch, and their sizes vary, the requirements for vertical launch units are also different, so these are a series of technical difficulties that we have overcome ourselves.

The cold and hot common launch system is a core supporting technology for the "multi-mission operations" of modern naval vessels, referring to the ability to accommodate two different missile launch methods within a single launch unit: cold launch and hot launch.

Cold launch ignites the missile after it departs from the launch device.

Hot launch can ignite directly within the vertical launch system.

Traditional systems usually only support one launch method, while the cold and hot common launch system integrates both, allowing a set of launch units to flexibly load different types of missiles and achieve real-time switching of munitions. This technology has significantly improved the firepower density and flexibility of the vessels.

(Source: China Central Television's Defense Military Channel program "Forging the Sword")