FriedRiceNSpice
Captain
Upgrade a sea skimming cruise missile to a ballistic missile??
054B/next generation frigate
- Thread starter Blitzo
- Start date
My mistake. I thought the CM-400 had deployable wings for some reason. The YJ-83 does seem a bit outdated though. It could use a hidden intake and maybe a chine. The US has been playing with LO missile designs for decades now. Could the AKF-98A serve as a YJ-83 replacement maybe?
Is there a full picture available?
oh it's really far along , sea trials within 2024 maybe ?An image update.
is it even likely for it to enter service before 1/10 2024 ?
I don't think we should expect specific dates, especially given how this is the 1st member of a brand new FFG class. There could be previously unknown/undiscovered problems with the warship design and engineering that only appeared after her sea trials were conducted, which certainly needs to be rectified before commissioning.
For reference, the first 2 members of the 054A FFG, which displaces around 1/3rd less than the 054B FFG at full load, took around 1 year (at Hudong-Zhonghua) and 1 year 3 months (at Huangpu-Wenchong) from launch to commissioning.
Though, I do believe that the 054B FFGs at both shipyards would take less than 2 years to enter service after launch (which is roughly the duration taken for the 1st 052D DDG at Jiangnan to go through the same process).
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Compared to contemporary foreign FFGs of similar dimensions and displacements, the 054B does fit pretty well with its armaments (i.e. the standard package of 1x naval gun, 32x VLS cells, 8x AShM launchers, 2x CIWS). Besides, beyond the obvious radar and sensor systems upgrades from the 054A, the 054B made great improvements in terms of open-sea, long-voyage endurance capability as well.
What the 054B FFG does lack compared to her US&LC peers is the capability to multi-pack their VLS. This is especially crucial for defending against missile swarm attacks (which seems to be the current preferred anti-ship method of the US with their LRASMs).
With 32x VLS cells that can fit only one HHQ-16 each means that the 054B FFGs can only equip a maximum of only 32x HHQ-16s per ship. Once all of the HHQ-16s have been exhausted, the only hard defensive measures left would be the short-range HHQ-10 and Type 1130 CIWS.
And there's also the Yu-8, which can take a couple of the VLS slots.
Personally, I do hope that future PLAN FFG designs can incorporate 16x UVLS (850mm) on top of the 32x VLS (650mm) being the standard for FFGs going forward. This means that while the 32x VLS will carry their own HHQ-16s and Y-8s, the 16x UVLS will therefore be loaded with a combination of tri/quad-packable medium-range SAMs, long-range SAMs (i.e. HHQ-9), Y-8s and/or AShMs.
Of course, if the 650mm VLS can be made to quad-pack medium-range SAMs as well, then the UVLS can be largely discarded. That means an example loadout of 24x HHQ-16s and 24x tri-packed/32x quad-packed medium range SAMs would do.
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A quick snippet: @伏尔戈星图 has mentioned just recently that China seems to have really started developing a new type of flame exhaust system, which does consider the compatibility with multi-packing VLS cells.
Perhaps all the drone attacks against sea targets in Ukraine, Israel and the Red Sea have convinced the PLAN WRT the importance of quad-packing medium-range SAMs, even when the SAMs cannot engage targets as far away as HHQ-9s and HHQ-16s.
Not sure whether the 850mm UVLS or 650mm VLS is involved with the multi-packing VLS development, however (feels like the former is more likely). And as always, the usual caveats apply.
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what is the consensus about 054B ?
1- how much of a capability upgrade it is compared to the 054A ?
2- I was wondering why the high urgency that PLAN had for the 054B , if I understand correctly blue navy that is built around carrier groups is the current goal for PLAN, then why the fast development of 054B instead of more of 054A ? Is this frigate made to free up the destroyers from convoy escort missions ? why the PLAN seemed keen on building the 054B
1- how much of a capability upgrade it is compared to the 054A ?
2- I was wondering why the high urgency that PLAN had for the 054B , if I understand correctly blue navy that is built around carrier groups is the current goal for PLAN, then why the fast development of 054B instead of more of 054A ? Is this frigate made to free up the destroyers from convoy escort missions ? why the PLAN seemed keen on building the 054B
??? You are making some assumptions out of the blue about "high urgency" which for anyone who actually follows the Navy's development would see as plainly inaccurate.
The 054A has been around for two decades and with 40 in sevice and more hulls being built for the Coast Guard what urgency do you possibly see?
Most frigate classes world-wide are built in single digits. Successful ones might go a dozen.
The 054A has had a long and successful production run in the Navy (and is still having in the CG.) The 054B is a simple progression that is faster with more room for upgrade and endurance to allow for better deployment with carrier groups which when the 054A came out was not really a requirement.