The Sovremenny class, Soviet designation Project 956 Sarych (buzzard), is a class of anti-ship and anti-aircraft guided-missile destroyers of the Soviet and later Russian Navy. The ships are named after qualities, with "Sovremenny" translating as "modern" or "contemporary". All of the Russian ships have been retired from active service and one converted into a museum ship in 2018. Four modified ships (two Project 956E and two Project 956EM) were delivered to the People's Liberation Army Navy, and remain in service. Those four ships were also refitted as multipurpose destroyers with more modern Chinese-made sensors and vertical launching system (VLS) along with the latest generation of Chinese-made weaponry during their midlife modernization.

The Sovremenny class are guided-missile destroyers, primarily tasked with anti-ship warfare, while also providing sea and air defense for warships and transports under escort. The class was designed to be complemented by the Udaloy-class destroyers, which were fitted primarily for anti-submarine operations.

The project began in the late 1960s when it was becoming obvious in the Soviet Navy that naval guns still had an important role, particularly in support of amphibious landings, but existing gun cruisers and destroyers were showing their age. A new design was started, employing a new 130 mm automatic gun turret. Single and twin mounts were developed, and the twin mount was chosen for its superior rate of fire. In 1971 a go-ahead was given for the Severnaya design bureau to design "a ship capable of supporting amphibious landings". At the same time, the United States Navy was constructing new large Spruance-class multi-role destroyers. To respond to this new threat, Project 956 was updated with a new air defence suite and new, powerful 3M80 anti-ship missiles. Although the Soviet Navy had largely moved to gas turbine propulsion for its new warships, steam turbines were selected instead for Project 956: partly because production of naval gas turbines would have been insufficient for the entire program. The lead ship of the class, Sovremenny was laid down in 1976 and commissioned in January, 1981. A total of 17 were built for the Russian Navy. All the ships were built by Severnaya Verf 190 in St. Petersburg.

These ships have a maximum displacement of 7,940 tons. The ships are 156.5 metres (513 ft 5 in) in length, with a beam of 17.2 metres (56 ft 5 in) and a draught of 5.2 metres (17 ft 1 in). They are armed with an anti-submarine helicopter, 48 air defence missiles, eight anti-ship missiles, torpedoes, mines, long-range guns and a sophisticated electronic warfare system.

There are a total of four versions of this class: the original Project 956 armed with the 3M80 version of the Moskit anti-ship missile, and its successor, the Project 956A, which is armed with the improved 3M80M version of the Moskit with longer range. The main difference between the two is that the missile launching tubes on Project 956A are longer than that of Project 956 to accommodate the increased size of the newer missile, and these launching tubes can be used to fire/store the original 3M80 as well. A third and fourth version, Project 956E and Project 956EM, later developed for the People's Liberation Army Navy Surface Force was the latest development of this class. Chinese media called the ship a "carrier killer".

The Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy Surface Force (PLAN) had two modified Sovremenny-class destroyers delivered in December 1999 and November 2000, designated as Project 956E, with improved electronic gears. In 2002, the PLAN ordered two improved versions designated Project 956EM. The first vessel was launched in St Petersburg on 23 July 2004, while the second was launched in 2006. All four vessels were commissioned to the East Sea Fleet.

On the improved Project Project 956EM, the aft AK-130 main gun was removed. The four AK-630 CIWS were replaced by two sets of Kashtan CIWS (later replaced by two Type 1130 gun-based CIWS and one HHQ-10 missile-based CIWS) short-range air defence gun/missile systems. Each Kashtan system comprises a 3R86E1 command module and two 3R87E combat modules. Each 3R87E combat module has two 30 mm GSh-30k six-barrel automatic guns (range 0.5–4 km (0.31–2.49 mi)) and two SA-N-11 air defence missiles. The missile is armed with a 9 kg (20 lb) warhead and has a range of 1.5–8 km (0.93–4.97 mi). This improved 956EM version is also the first to be armed with the newer version of SS-N-22, the P-270 Moskit (later replaced by YJ-12A), which is reported to have a designation of 3-M80MBE and possibly funded by China (according to Russian sources), and the new missile differs from the older ones mainly in that the range is increased from 120 km (75 mi) to 200 km (120 mi). The air defense software is upgraded to accommodate the newer SA-N-12/SA-17 SAM system (later replaced by VLS launched HHQ-16), but since China had already joined Russia in developing an even newer successor, it is not clear if SA-N-12/SA-17 has entered Chinese service in large numbers.

In 2006, the extra spheres (painted white in the mid-2006) added atop of the superstructures of the Chinese ships appearing in the latest photographs of the Chinese units have shown that these Chinese ships had been upgraded with the domestic HN-900 Data link (the Chinese equivalent of Link 11A/B, to be upgraded) and SATCOM (probably the SNTI-240).