055 DDG Large Destroyer Thread

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lcloo

lcloo

Captain
plawolf said:
What possible US ship has that helicopter hanger layout, missile launcher and whip antenna combo like that?

It’s an 055.

There are not many good shots of the hanger, but I think this is the best one I have seen.


You can just about make out the Satcom bulbs as the little while bulbs with black rims. Although these seems to be a new addition as they were not on launch day pictures of any 055 I can remember.
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That picture shows one satcom at the middle of the ship's air uptake structure. It is not the two satcoms in the video. Though I would accept Tam's explaination of PLAN adding 2 new satcoms which appeared for the first time.
 
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Tam

Brigadier
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test1979 said:
It looks like the middle unit of the 052d
View attachment 87319
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That white satcom is not part of the 052D before and you can find many pictures to show this except for 052D that already has this added.

The satcom was added later on this ship, especially since 173 is an older 052D and I'm sure she didn't had this before. You can also find this satcom on many newer pictures of 054A placed on top of the rear hanger but in older pictures you don't see this satcom.

Won't surprise me if they decided to add them on the 055 which don't have this satcom and which would even disadvantage these ships for the lack of it. For them to put it there suggest it must have important function.
 
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Tam

Brigadier
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lcloo said:
That picture shows one satcom at the middle of the ship structure. It is not the two satcoms in the video. Though I would accept Tam's explaination of PLAN adding 2 new satcoms which appeared for the first time.
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PLAN puts two of the same satcom on certain ships when the field of view of the satcom is blocked by some reason or another. That's why the older 052D has two of the larger grey ones ahead if the Type 517 VHF aerial, but on the extended 052D, the pair has been removed ahead of the 517 and instead a single one is placed on top of the hanger. If the satcom has enough FOV from horizon to horizon, a single one would suffice.

In the 055, I would assume the HQ-10 launcher blocks the view so you need to put the same satcom on two sides. Remember that a satcom needs to track a satellite as it goes from one horizon to another. On the 052D, it wasn't completely blocked but imo there might still be interference from the two Type 366-2 data links (antiship targeting) beside it. That's probably why PLAN keeps moving these satcoms around ship to ship experimenting for ideal position and on the extended 052D its now on top of the hanger. Remember the ship wasn't designed with these satcoms as part of its original plan.
 
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ACuriousPLAFan

Colonel
Registered Member
Bltizo said:
I'm not yet sure if a two or three tier system is optimal (with the 13000t 055 family and the frigate both being two of the tiers) -- nor am I sure what displacement the frigate should be.

Personally. I feel like a 5000t frigate (with growth expansion to 5500t) could be a good middle ground -- for 054B.

Slotting between the 13000t and 5000t weight classes would be a 8000t true clean sheet successor to 052D.


==

The "delays" for 054B I suspect are a combination of introduction of new technologies to 054B from what they may have originally intended back in the late 2000s (assuming 054B would've already been being worked on back then given the build/develop/research a generation method the PLA uses), as well as requirement for more hulls in service that may have been deemed important sometime in the late 2010s deu to the changing strategic environment.
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Agree.

My personal idea, albeit simpler, would be something like this - Categorization of surface combatants into light, medium and heavy classes for the Navy, which is somewhat akin to light, medium and heavy fighters in the Air Force.

Light surface combatants would be Frigates, i.e. Type 054As and (maybe clean sheet) Type 054Bs.
Medium surface combatants would be Destroyers, i.e. Type 052Ds and (maybe clean sheet) Type 052Es.
Heavy surface combatants would be Cruisers/Large Destroyers, i.e. Type 055s and (maybe clean sheet) Type 055Xs.

Corvettes don't count, since they aren't exactly meant for naval surface combats on the high seas, and are therefore focused more on coastal and near-coast operations.

This would be sufficient for a fundemental 3-tier surface combatant system for the PLA Navy, sufficient to address all kinds and magnitudes of threats in the naval domain.
 
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Totoro

Major
VIP Professional
Does anyone have that one image from 5 or so years ago, when a similar looking missile was launched from a Chinese ship? I forget if it was a test ship. At the time the consensus was it was some big SAM.
 
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