plawolf
Lieutenant General
FL3000s are a point defence missile. They are only useful for defending against missiles coming at the ship they are mounted on.
The 056 would have to pretty much be in the path of an incoming missile heading for a bigger ship for its FL3000s to help put with fleet defence.
During wartime, 056s are not meant to operate alone. Operating alone and without fleet support would be a bad idea for any warship other than a sub.
Being in a fleet doesn’t change the fact that the FL3000s are too short legged to effectively cover any other ship in the fleet.
You also need to consider that the 056 will pretty much be the last ships an enemy would target ina fleet engagement, and will only pick up incoming missiles if, it just happened to get on the way of the missile gunning for a bigger target, or ending up as an independent re-acquire from an incoming missiles that was successfully decoyed by its intended target.
During a fleet engagement, the 056 will act much like the old traditional WWII destroyers and subsequent sub chaser classes.
Their main job will be ASW by presenting a small and unworthy target for enemy sub commanders; while packing the sensors and weapons to kill any sub foolish enough to underestimate them; and acting as FOBs for friendly ASW helicopters from carriers/LHDs and other major surface combatants to potentially significantly extend the range and operational persistence of said ASW helicopters.
The PLAN will have 055s, 052C/D and 054As etc for fleet air defence.
Adding more rounds to the 056’s FL3000 launcher adds practically nothing to benefit the ‘fleet’; and if in a fleet engagement, an 056 needed more than the 8 short range missile for self defence, something far more significant has gone wrong than the risk of running out of FL3000s.
