China has run out of provincial capitals for the names of its destroyers. Yesterday, June 16, portal scmp.com he reported that the ship Nanning received the name of the last "free" city-the center of the province.
The Nanning destroyer of the Type 052D project became the third ship of this type accepted into the PLA Navy this year and the 18th in the series. On it, China ran out of provincial capitals, which in the fleet are usually called destroyers of the Type 052 and Type 055 projects.
Destroyers of the Type 052D project
Image source: shipshub.com
More than a dozen ships of the Type 052 and Type 055 projects are under construction. Thus, China will have to change the rules and look for smaller cities, or move away from the tradition of naming destroyers with the names of provincial capitals.
In recent years, China has been increasingly asserting rights to disputed territories in the South China Sea. In terms of the size of the Chinese fleet in 2019, it came out on top in the world and continues to expand actively.