China has sent a Type 055 destroyer to accompany its ­aircraft carrier group for the first time during a sea trial over the weekend, a move analysts have said could boost the strike group’s lethality. According to media reports, the Nanchang, a Type 055 Renhai class stealth-guided missile destroyer, has joined the Liaoning aircraft carrier group, which was spotted passing the waterway between Okinawa and Miyako Island and heading towards the Pacific on Saturday morning. Dr Collin Koh, a Research Fellow from RSIS, said the Type 055 was by far the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s most capable ­surface combatant, and having it ­integrated into China’s aircraft carrier group would help boost its combat capabilities. “The Type 055 has a significant improvement over the preceding classes of destroyers, in particular the Type 052D, boasting a much larger weapons payload that gives unprecedented defensive and offensive capabilities to the PLA Navy,” Koh said.