052C/052D Class Destroyers

Some cool images from a recent exercise showing the moment chaff cartridges from a 052C exploded in mid-air. You can see the tiny parachutes attached to the cartridges.

That's a large cloud of ferrite particles. That's bound to create an enormous radar signature, which is the intention.

Tam said:

That's a large cloud of ferrite particles. That's bound to create an enormous radar signature, which is the intention.

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It’s probably more than just particles. something in that cloud has to be large enough to actually reflect the intended radar wave length.

Richard Santos said:

It’s probably more than just particles. something in that cloud has to be large enough to actually reflect the intended radar wave length.

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Usually that's the X-band, so that's about 3.75 to 2.5 cm, but you also need to consider seekers using the Ku or Ka band.

The chaff decoys are set like a menu. The ESM picks up the threat missile's seeker's wave length, and then the computer picks from a palette which decoy to use to match that wavelength. That's why the DLS is part of a set:

Type 726 EW set.

Type 726-1 ESM, Type 726-2 ESM, Type 726-3 ECM, Type 726-4 DLS.

One ESM is for signal analysis, the other ESM is for directional finding.

Yesterday marks the 7th anniversary of the commissioning of DDG 172 Kunming, the lead ship of the 052D class. How time flies.

by78 said:

Yesterday marks the 7th anniversary of the commissioning of DDG 172 Kunming, the lead ship of the 052D class. How time flies.

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Time flies fast. I remember when this beast was first commissioned, Chinese commentators were still talking about "surpassing the Royal Navy." And back in 2015, some Brits were still joking about being able to defeat the PLAN in a South China Sea naval battle with the Daring class and SSNs.

SpicySichuan said:

Time flies fast. I remember when this beast was first commissioned, Chinese commentators were still talking about "surpassing the Royal Navy." And back in 2015, some Brits were still joking about being able to defeat the PLAN in a South China Sea naval battle with the Daring class and SSNs.

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I think you'll find that a lot of Brits are still doing that. Ignorance is bliss.

SpicySichuan said:

Time flies fast. I remember when this beast was first commissioned, Chinese commentators were still talking about "surpassing the Royal Navy." And back in 2015, some Brits were still joking about being able to defeat the PLAN in a South China Sea naval battle with the Daring class and SSNs.

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How much the PLAN has improved over the past 10 years is nothing short of a miracle

Lethe said:

I think you'll find that a lot of Brits are still doing that. Ignorance is bliss.

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Haha I doubt it happens anywhere these days outside of the comments section on the DailyMail...