Hendrik_2000
Lieutenant General
Henri K speculate there will be 64 of them It is one of the largest ship building program in China
58th, the Type 056 corvette program is coming to an end?
BY
1,000, 4,000, 6,000 and 12,000 ... These are standardized categories of tonnage that the Chinese Navy decided in the early 2000s for its combat vessels, except for support and auxiliary fleets. The Type 056 corvette program was born a few years later to gradually replace a large number of aging corvettes and different classes, and thus corresponds to the "1,000-tonne" category by its movement at less than 1,400 tonnes.
For this reason, in successive installments of orders over five years since 2010, Type 056 is becoming one of China's largest military ship programs, in terms of the number of buildings built, such as Type 037 and variants that precedes it.
If the final number of Type 056 that will be in staffing by the Chinese Navy is never officially revealed, sources close to the record have rather converged to the figure of 64 for the moment. And with the launching of the 58th hull a few days ago in the south of China, it is not impossible that the construction for this program, at least for Chinese-Chinese orders, will soon affect its end.
Indeed, the launching of 627 Enshi (恩施) last Thursday at the Huangpu shipyard near Guangzhou, was revealed by two local medals in the city of Enshi, one has already removed his article on the Weixin account for unknown reasons.
It must be remembered that the Chinese media are less and less motivated to divulge this kind of news, probably not to raise additional fears about the rapid expansion of the country's naval forces, or this kind of news can not -being more audience as it became all too common and "trivial".
Anyway, we learn in the texts that a delegation composed of several civil and military personalities of this ethnic minority city, in Hubei Province, went to Guangzhou on Thursday, March 7 to attend the ceremony of launching a corvette bearing the name of the city.
The same delegation also met with Unit 91192, the 18th Fleet Flotilla of the Southern Fleet, which is going to receive this new corvette alongside at least 2 others that it is already operating. Both parties have signed collaborative agreements as custom dictates.
Meeting between the local delegation of Enshi City and Unit 91192 (Image: 广东 省 恩施 商会)
Statistical level, if the follow-up is good since the data are becoming more and more rare today, it is the 58th Type 056 put in flow since the beginning of the program in 2012, excluded export versions, the 4th in 2019, and the 16th built by the shipyard Huangpu.
This shipyard, founded in 1851, is part of one of four shipyards involved in the construction of the Type 056. With 16 hulls built on the meter, Huangpu Wenchong is positioned far ahead of the shipyard Wuchang (12) and Liaonan (10) , but remains behind sister company Shanghaïan Hudong-Zhonghua (20), belonging to the same naval group CSSC.
It can also be seen that the program has maintained a steady pace of production since 2011. Apart from 2017, when only 3 corvettes were launched, the Chinese manufacturers managed to get out between 6 and 10 hulls a year. And with already 4 in this first quarter of 2019, it is possible that it is still a "full" year for the program.
Construction follow-up of corvettes Type 056 per year (Image: East Pendulum)
Will we see the last Type 056 vessels in the water by the end of the year, or at the latest in 2020, or more additional orders will come with the arrival of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021- 2025)? There is no reason to say that with public data today, but it certainly depends on the evolution of organizations within the expanding Chinese navy, the changing geopolitical context and its own needs.
If China believes that it is possible to protect its coasts and EEZs with 64 corvettes, divided into two normal and ASW variants, then it is likely that the current generation capacity will be re-allocated to other areas, but this estimate requires much more study.
To be continued.
Henri K.
