China plans to arm the second generation of its new Type 055 destroyers with electromagnetic railguns capable of shooting down U.S. missiles and bombarding land targets.

The first ship of the Type 055-class began building this year and should be completed in a year or two. It will be a conventional destroyer China claims will be the equal of the U.S. Navy's Arleigh Burke-class destroyers that are the backbone of the Navy's surface fleet.

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Rear Admiral Yin Zhuo of the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) was even more fulsome, however, describing the Type 055 as a "game changer in naval warfare." Adm. Yin is a member of the PLAN's advisory board on cybersecurity and once served as a national political adviser to the communist central government.

The Type 055 will see service as escorts to the second Chinese aircraft carrier currently being built. It's the second generation of this class -- the Type 055A -- China says will be armed with railguns. PLAN expects to begin building the Type 055A starting 2020.

It plans to initially use its railguns, however, to replace its current close in weapons systems (CIWS) providing the last ditch defense of its surface warships. China's CIWS, the Type 730 seven-barreled 30 mm Gatling gun, is effective against slow aircraft and aerial drones. It is ineffective against supersonic cruise missiles and modern anti-ship missiles.

The larger version of this railgun CIWS will be a 32 megajoule weapon capable of firing a 10 kilogram shell over a distance of 100 nautical miles. The Type 055A will require an integrated electric propulsion similar to that in the U.S. Navy's Zumwalt-class destroyers to attain the massive power needed to fire a railgun. China has not shown itself capable of building the power plants that will make this possible, however.

TagsType 055 destroyer, People's Liberation Army Navy, electromagnetic railgun, Rear Admiral Yin Zhuo