I think the idea is to make the ship stealthy against the fairly small radar in the tip of a sea skimming ASM. Thats probably reasonable and worth the effort.
Taiwan Military News, Reports, Data, etc.
- Thread starter Gollevainen
- Start date
Skywatcher
Captain
At that point, why not just go the full hog and provide coverings and hatches to the superstructure and canisters?
I'm guessing they have done tests and discovered that you cant hide ships from maritime patrol planes or frigate and destroyers. No point in spending the money unless you get results you want. If you fly on a jetliner over the ocean you can see and identify ships at great distance with the naked eye. The sensors in missiles are by comparison very small and can be beaten by stealth. Navies know there is nothing they can do to hide surface combatants but there is a lot they can do to prevent them from being blown up.
Skywatcher
Captain
That assumes that the PLAN/PLAAF can't datalink say, a Y-8Q, to a YJ-83 missile to provide midcourse updates on the Tuo River Corvette's location.
Again, as I've said, they should have gone with a monohull for the corvette (it'd be just as fast, and at least more damage resistant).
TerraN_EmpirE
Tyrant King
If it's being pinged from above or below most "Stealth Ships" are going to be visible anyway. I mean All stealth has blind spots. the edge of a F22 is small but if you scan it from the bottom it's a wall.
Jura The idiot
General
TerraN_EmpirE
Tyrant King
Glad to see that they have now fully armed this vessel the way they intended.
They need to build 11 to 15 more of them.
Not at all. A large portion of the canisters are covered by the sloping side walls that come well up on them.
This is far better than just having them sit on an open area of the deck which was the old way of doing things.
They could spend a lot more money and hide them completely and simply open doors in the side to expose the missiles...but for this size ship, and for where it intends to operate, that is probably not necessary. These ships are mean to be able to get out a short distance into the straits and then fire a large salvo of missiles at large and opportune enemy targets before they either can scurry back to base or around the island, or get destroyed.
They are meant to give a lot more than they take and therefore act as a deterrent.
If they had 16 of these vessels in four four ship flotillas, they would pose a significant threat to any group attempting to cross the straits.
It is a little bit bizarre that the ROC Navy have yet to build any additional ships of the class.
Last I heard they were planning on revising the design with air defence capabilities including SAMs and a 3d radar, supposedly with construction possibly starting this year... but I feel like that will be taking what is already a fairly heavily loaded and armed corvette/missile boat and turning it into something... else.