The country's first warship with stealth technology served as the flagship in recent off-shore exercises of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy, according to the PLA Navy sources.

It is the first time that the new-type warship has been made public, the PLA Daily reported on Thursday. It marks a breakthrough in the country's warship building sector, it said.

The stealth destroyer, which is independently designed and built by Chinese, is capable of accomplishing long-distance missions.

In late 2000, China began building the stealth destroyer. Experts involved in the project worked to make it as stealthy as possible, according to Navy sources.

Over 30 percent of the equipment on the destroyer is newly developed.

Module technology was also used on the new warship, making China the third country to use the technology in warship-building.

Before the new destroyer was handed over to the Navy, it made a 9,000-sea mile test voyage lasting more than 120 days. Over 300 problems were found and rectified, the sources said.

Source: Xinhua