China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy retired its last two Type 051 Class destroyers on August 28th. China commissioned 17 Type 051 Class ships into PLA service. The Type 051 was the PLA’s first ever guided missile destroyer. At the beginning of 2020 only two Type 051 Class ships remained in PLA service of the original 17: the heavily enhanced Type 051G Class ships Zhanjiang and Zhuhai. The ships were both launched in 1990 and commissioned the following year.

It should be noted that the PLA Navy does retain a single Type 051B Class destroyer in service. This ship however was first commissioned in 1999 and it is not considered a part of the Type 051 Class program due to its very different and much larger design despite sharing the same designation.