Type 022 Missile Boat

[jnd85]

It would be frankly insane to try to land a manned helicopter on the Type22.

Not only would the available helipad be minuscule, it will be a moving target at sea, with minimal landing assist from the Type22 due to limited height of superstructure and visibility. And even if you do manage to nail the landing despite all that, the weight of the helicopter is going to cause massive weight distribution issues.

Looking at the design of the modifications, I would not be surprised if that is mostly for improvement hotel facilities to improve crew comfort and support to extend the endurance of the boat so that they can use them as fast patrol boats for primarily peacetime law enforcement operations.

I think the CCG are having a bit of a headache with the fast patrol boats the Japanese gave to the Philippines, so this would be a logical and low cost counter to give the CCG patrol boats that can match the Philippines boats for speed.

The added hotel facilities would allow the crew to live much more comfortably on the Type22, so they can spend more time patrolling at the front lines instead of needing to ge held back at base, as even with their fast speed, the action will likely be over by the time the can get to it.

The oversized comms gear are likely just a consequence of the small size of the boats, where they will have a very short LoS horizon, so they will need to rely more on satcoms.

My money is on a new modular system to develop export markets.

 

[lcloo]

Missile boats of type 022 size has shorter service life span than larger ships like frigates and destroyers. Type 022 should have expected service life of around 20-25 years. Since the first type 022 was introduced slightly more than 20 years ago, it was expected to be retired around or after 2030.

IMO, the modification that was observed is mainly to fully utilise whatever left of the service life of this class of boats. I think using them as local area aerial or underwater drone control boats would be quite useful, considering innovation of drone designs moved very fast and a boat with short remaining service life would just fit in well.

Just my Two Cents.

 

[plawolf]

My money is on a new modular system to develop export markets.

Why? The type has been out of production for well over a decade, and the fleet are coming up on 2 decades in service. You have a finite number of old hulls well past their prime. Hard to see anyone being interested. What export customers that might exist would also overwhelmingly want the vanilla AShM variant in any case. Way too late to start seeking to export these things, and definitely not worth the effort and expense to modify them for export.

 

[Equation]

Why? The type has been out of production for well over a decade, and the fleet are coming up on 2 decades in service. You have a finite number of old hulls well past their prime. Hard to see anyone being interested. What export customers that might exist would also overwhelmingly want the vanilla AShM variant in any case. Way too late to start seeking to export these things, and definitely not worth the effort and expense to modify them for export.

INDIA: "Saar..hold my Pakistani tea. I might be interested!"