054B/next generation frigate

Blitzo

Lieutenant General
Staff member
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So, these two pictures are new and give us a shot of the rest of test ship 892.


CDF x post:

I note that I cannot see any MR90 illuminators on the ship, which would of course be consistent for testing the set up for a ship that is not expected to be fitted with SARH SAMs...

Then again 892 doesn't seem like it is fitted with any VLS either, so it *may* just reflect that the ship is only testing the radar and not the entirely full sensor suite+VLS of the ship....


But either way, the likelihood that 054B won't have terminal illuminators has just crept a little big higher, which of course is something which is desirable and expected for a modern surface combatant equipped with an AESA.
 

azretonov

Junior Member
Registered Member
I wonder if a CODLAG solution is within the range of possibility for the successor class. Some additional GT provided sprint capability might prove useful.
 

Totoro

Major
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That looks a bit like the radar solution on the French general purpose FREMM subvariant frigate. Which, if implemented, should be a fairly decent solution - cheap but still capable.

Only drawback might be if the fact the search/tracking radar is rotating means there are still dedicated illuminator arrays for the anti air missiles.
Ideally, IF the missiles are still of semi active radar guidance, the tracking radar should at least double as illuminating radar as well. Which is not really doable with a rotating array.

Of course, a better solution still would be to use a missile with self guidance. Be it radar or infrared. Then a rotating radar should be enough to act as a datalink array, to converse with the missiles. (so dedicated datalink arrays aren't needed for that)
 
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