There is not much more you can learn from an obsolescent ship other than basic seamanship skills. 051s and 053s share literally no systems in common with any of the modern ships in the PLAN. There is also something to be said about wasting your career on a dead-end ship learning things that won't translate into anything useful in your future, and possibly even hampering your adaptation to a new ship because of what you've become accustomed to, when the transfer inevitably comes. You point out that these ships' "capability, technology and doctrine are obviously multiple generations behind the leading ships" but yet wave this off like it doesn't mean anything. So what "experience" are you referring to besides basic seamanship skills?
054/A FFG Thread II
- Thread starter tphuang
- Start date
Basic seamanship skills, I think as a few recent events have demonstrated, are not to be underestimated.
As for other learning opportunities, I think the process of being aboard an operational warship, learning to receive and give commands, and conducting exercises, even aboard obsolete warships, I believe will produce sailors and officers who are more ready to effectively operate as part of a crew of a more advanced modern warship, compared to sailors and officers who have had zero experience as part of the crew of an operational warship before.
There is an argument to be made that perhaps fresh officer graduates and enlisted sailors might be more able to transition effectively to the demands of an advanced modern warship compared to officers and sailors who have had a few years experience on an 051 or 053, as the latter group would likely require re-training to get acquaint them with the capabilities and their jobs on a modern warship. But OTOH, the fresh officer graduates and enlisted sailors would also be green to their new taskings in an actual operational warship itself.
However, I want to add that my reasoning for why the Navy has yet to retire 051s and 053s is not reliant on that single reason.
Rather, it is a combination of a number of potential factors, including:
-the aforementioned role of 051s and 053s providing a means of providing experience for some sailors and officers before moving onto more advanced warships
-the role of 051s and 053s in retaining "positions" in the current expanding order of battle so as to allow a smoother transition to an overall larger order of battle of "all-modern" warships in the near future.
-the ability of 051s and 053s to still retain a degree of operational usefulness, in low intensity missions near China's periphery, namely general patrol duties
-and finally, the issue of cost. The above factors would all not be worth it if the operational running costs of 051s and 053s were immensely high.
There is probably some truth to a few of these propositions which is why the 051s and 053s are still around, but certainly none of these reasons are compelling enough for them to stay past the end of this decade.
I expect most of them to be retired by 2020. A few stragglers may persist to the early 2020s but I think the vast majority will be gone by 2020.
To clarify, I was not suggesting that 051s and 053s should continue to remain in service beyond 2020, but rather to explain why they have been retained over the last few years despite an increase in other modern warships for the Navy, and to explain why they might still be around for a couple years more before exiting for good. Basically, I was replying to Franklin's statement of "I feel that the PLAN should have decommissioned 4 or 5 of the Luda and Jianghu ships by now"
Hendrik_2000
Lieutenant General
Chinese flotilla cross the Tsushima strait for exercise with Russian navy. Tsushima is the site of Russo-Japan naval battle
4 military vessels of the Chinese navy, including a submarine rescue vessel, entered the Sea of Japan since 15 September.
4 military vessels of the Chinese navy, including a submarine rescue vessel, entered the Sea of Japan since 15 September.
Jura The idiot
General
Jura The idiot
General
Jura The idiot
General
google translation of
Mise à flot de la 28e frégate Type 054A
26 septembre 2017
"Less than six months after the previous vessel of the same class, the Huangpu Shipyard of the Chinese naval group CSSC again launched last Friday a Type 054A frigate.
This is the 14th Type 054A built in this shipyard, located near the city of Guangzhou in southern China, and the 28th in series. The start of mass production of this multi-role Chinese frigate class dates back 12 years, and since the new buildings are launched at the rate of one every five months on average.
Note that this new frigate is also the 3rd of the model to have been launched in 2017.
The Type 054A is 140 meters long, 16 meters high, 31 meters high and moves to 4,000 tonnes full load. The ship has a range of over 4,000 nautical miles at a cruising speed of 18 knots.
For the time being, it is the best anti-submarine anti-submarine platform for the Chinese Navy, which has a complete dedicated suite including a hull sonar, a variable depth towed sonar, a sound control system and submarine communications, as well as torpedoes, ASROC Yu-8 and anti-submarine rockets.
The relatively low cost of operational operation, versatility and comfort, which are generally appreciated by the Chinese Navy and crews, make Type 054A an important vector in the composition of China's naval forces. and that the number of buildings built is revised several times upwards, from 24 originally planned to at least 28 today.
The hull number that will be assigned to this 28th Type 054A is not yet known, but knowing that all the 5xx numbers, so far dedicated to corvettes and frigates, are already used, it is not excluded that this ship will receive a shell number 500 or starting with 6xx.
The building is expected to join the Chinese Navy by the end of October 2018 according to our estimate.
In parallel to the launch of this Type 054A frigate, the Huangpu shipyard also floated a 110-meter-long military offshore tug and moved 6,000 tons full load.
This is the third class building, the first of which has already been admitted to active service by the Northern Fleet on July 20 this year."
Mise à flot de la 28e frégate Type 054A
26 septembre 2017
:
"Less than six months after the previous vessel of the same class, the Huangpu Shipyard of the Chinese naval group CSSC again launched last Friday a Type 054A frigate.
This is the 14th Type 054A built in this shipyard, located near the city of Guangzhou in southern China, and the 28th in series. The start of mass production of this multi-role Chinese frigate class dates back 12 years, and since the new buildings are launched at the rate of one every five months on average.
Note that this new frigate is also the 3rd of the model to have been launched in 2017.
The Type 054A is 140 meters long, 16 meters high, 31 meters high and moves to 4,000 tonnes full load. The ship has a range of over 4,000 nautical miles at a cruising speed of 18 knots.
For the time being, it is the best anti-submarine anti-submarine platform for the Chinese Navy, which has a complete dedicated suite including a hull sonar, a variable depth towed sonar, a sound control system and submarine communications, as well as torpedoes, ASROC Yu-8 and anti-submarine rockets.
The relatively low cost of operational operation, versatility and comfort, which are generally appreciated by the Chinese Navy and crews, make Type 054A an important vector in the composition of China's naval forces. and that the number of buildings built is revised several times upwards, from 24 originally planned to at least 28 today.
The hull number that will be assigned to this 28th Type 054A is not yet known, but knowing that all the 5xx numbers, so far dedicated to corvettes and frigates, are already used, it is not excluded that this ship will receive a shell number 500 or starting with 6xx.
The building is expected to join the Chinese Navy by the end of October 2018 according to our estimate.
In parallel to the launch of this Type 054A frigate, the Huangpu shipyard also floated a 110-meter-long military offshore tug and moved 6,000 tons full load.
This is the third class building, the first of which has already been admitted to active service by the Northern Fleet on July 20 this year."