Chinese Naval Export: News, Views, Pics & Videos

To tell the truth, it is very surprising that Indonesia has shown its intention to buy 053H3, and the number is an astonishing seven. Considering its current situation in the PLAN sequence, I suspect that the PLA has given these old assets a discount that is enough to impress everyone.XD

Syrida2887 said:

To tell the truth, it is very surprising that Indonesia has shown its intention to buy 053H3, and the number is an astonishing seven. Considering its current situation in the PLAN sequence, I suspect that the PLA has given these old assets a discount that is enough to impress everyone.XD

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That’s a terrible buy. This saving money by scraping bottom of the barrel approach is gonna cause much pain later down the road.

siegecrossbow said:

That’s a terrible buy. This saving money by scraping bottom of the barrel approach is gonna cause much pain later down the road.

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Yes, these old ships have been in service for more than 25 years in the PLAN sequence, which is not as good as the end of the ship's life and has been transferred to the training sequence. If this purchase comes true, I must doubt whether Indonesians really want to build a navy that meets their size.

Indonesia is a nation surrounded by seas and encompassing over 17,000 islands, many of which are inhabited.
These seas are challenging, and there is always a need to patrol one's EEZ, and ships like the Type 053H can perform this mission admirably.
I believe that if the purchase is successful, they will be overhauled before delivery and could replace much older ships currently in service.
The Type 053Hs are all diesel-powered, based on well-known and reliable engines.
These frigates can be delivered quickly at an affordable price and will be able to meet the needs of the Indonesian Navy until they are replaced by more modern vessels.

I think Indonesia's purchase of type 053H3 is a stop gap measure while their own domestic shipyards are trying to improve their production quality and quantity. Indonesia has the most capable shipyards among the ASEAN countries.

If they have major overhaul, these type 053H3 may last another 10 to 15 years.

IMO type 053H3 hull's sea keeping is quite good for its size, it impressed upon me much during the search for the missing MH370 in 2014, watching on TV how it cut through the waves steadily at high speed to the search area without bumping up and down.

I think the PLAN will let these frigates go for a song. Neither the PLAN nor the Chinese Coast Guard have much use for them, they have at least 20 years of life left (especially the last 2 of the class which were built in 2004), and for a great power, an expected part of the global public service they provide is providing friendly countries with quality military equipment. Getting a couple hundred million or a billion for them is a bonus. It's a win-win situation.

And I would guess that China will do a light MLU on them before transferring the ships -- I bet this is where most of the purchase price is going.

Of the Type 053H frigates, it is certain that the FFG 524 Sanming, FFG 564 Yichang and FFG 566 Huaihua have undergone upgrades and replacement of part of their weapon systems.




The combat information center of 053H3 Huaihua after modernization. It uses the latest gen consoles.



I do not recall whether the others have undergone the same work, but if Indonesia were to acquire them, the frigates could enter service very quickly, as much of the work has already been done.