The critique of late-1990s and early-2000s designs centers on an expectation of discretionary wars and largely permissive operations. Type 055 provides the example here: about 13,000 tons and 112 VLS cells accompany one 130 mm gun, one 30 mm close-in weapon system and one 24-cell short-range missile launcher. Its two helicopters give it more aviation redundancy than its individual local-defense mounts. The criticism is that a single mount can leave a gap if it becomes unavailable. Duplicating local weapons with overlapping arcs is presented as a necessary allowance for combat damage and failures, even when it appears inefficient in peacetime.
Chapter · 2:00:08-2:05:20
Peace-dividend designs traded war-fighting redundancy for efficiency
Single close-in systems and shrinking fleet numbers reveal assumptions that modern destroyers would operate in permissive environments.