Renowned warship Harbin bids farewell

CNS Harbin, one of the most renowned warships in the People's Liberation Army Navy, was decommissioned and sent to the hometown of the Navy's first commander for public display.

At a decommissioning ceremony on Friday at a naval port in Qingdao, Shandong province, officers and sailors from the destroyer squadron that operated Harbin watched as the naval ensign was lowered from the jackstaff after a commanding officer announced the ship's decommissioning.

Its hull number, 112, was covered with fresh paint, while the inscription "Presented by the PLA Navy" was applied to the outer side of the ship's island superstructure.

Following the ceremony, Harbin slowly steamed out of the naval port. All the warships moored there sounded their whistles in unison, saluting the decorated veteran and bidding it a solemn farewell.

The retired warship will be berthed in Changsha, Hunan province — the hometown of Xiao Jinguang, the Navy's first commander, who remained in the post for almost three decades — and will serve as a national defense education base open to local residents and tourists, according to the Navy.

It is common practice for the Navy to transfer decommissioned military hardware to local governments or museums for public display.

Harbin is the lead ship of the Type 052 destroyer class, the second generation of guided-missile destroyers independently developed and built by China.

Equipped with a variety of weapon systems, including naval guns, air defense missiles, antiship missiles, and capable of carrying two helicopters, Harbin could engage air, surface, and underwater targets.

In the 1980s, modern cruisers and destroyers were widely deployed by the world's major navies, while the PLA Navy was still operating lightweight destroyers that were incapable of effectively countering threats from advanced foreign warships.

In 1983, the Central Military Commission assigned the nation's shipbuilding industry the task of developing a new type of guided-missile destroyer.

The new destroyer project was officially launched at Jiangnan Shipyard in Shanghai in April 1986 and designated as a national key defense project.

At the time, the planned destroyer was to be the largest, most advanced and most challenging warship to be constructed by China's naval shipbuilding industry.

Under the leadership of chief designer Pan Jingfu, researchers and engineers from nearly 200 universities, institutes and enterprises across 19 provinces and municipalities worked together to overcome numerous technical obstacles in an effort to build what was dubbed a "warship of national pride".

The design work was completed in September 1989, and construction of the lead ship, Harbin, began that month. Harbin was completed and delivered to a destroyer flotilla of the North Sea Fleet in May 1994, entering service that month.

The vessel was China's first destroyer with modern comprehensive combat capabilities, the first Chinese warship to adopt a combined diesel-or-gas propulsion system, and the first to achieve centralized command of all its weapon systems.

During its service, Harbin took part in more than 100 major combat drills and training missions and sailed more than 740,000 kilometers. It visited 22 ports in 20 countries across three continents, including Russia, the United States and Australia, and carried out two escort missions in the Gulf of Aden.

In the spring of 1997, a PLA Navy task group led by Harbin paid official visits to the United States, Mexico, Peru and Chile.

The voyage marked several historic breakthroughs. It was the first trans-Pacific crossing by Chinese naval ships and the first time Chinese warships reached the continental United States and South America.

zhaolei@chinadaily.com.cn