That's literally it, better propulsion. People can point and laugh their ass off at the FF(X) but ironically even that has a better propulsion than any Chinese frigate.
054B/new generation frigate
- Thread starter Blitzo
- Start date
I think most of the complaints boil down to either better propulsion and/or better armament, basically more VLS cells. That seems to have been the major gripes presented as most of the other things were significantly upgraded from 054A to 054B.
2x10MW diesels + 1x30MW GT CODLAG propulsion.
40/48 UVLS cells.
Quad packable medium range SAM (555/HHQ-11/20).
The issue here is I don't see why this is necessary. They're escorts and places where they'd face the greatest amount of risk is as part of a battlegroup. The sensor and ASW package was upgraded, which was probably the most dated part of the ship.
It's still, at the end of the day, a lower echelon ship. Not every ship needs to be a destroyer.
By that point, China might as well go with 64x UVLS cells (+1 more 30MW GT).
Oh wait, that does sound rather familiar, doesn't it? Hmm, I wonder what that is...
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054B UAV-guided live-fire artillery attack training against the shore. By 央广军事
Recently, a naval detachment under the Northern Theater Command organized training for artillery-fire attacks on the opposite shore under UAV guidance. Unmanned and manned forces coordinated efficiently, and combat effectiveness was greatly improved.
In the earlier phase, the detachment stayed closely aligned with maritime combat needs, organizing intensive training for a “UAV pilot club” to strengthen officers’ and enlisted personnel’s drone-operating skills.
Recently, a naval detachment under the Northern Theater Command organized training for artillery-fire attacks on the opposite shore under UAV guidance. Unmanned and manned forces coordinated efficiently, and combat effectiveness was greatly improved.
In the earlier phase, the detachment stayed closely aligned with maritime combat needs, organizing intensive training for a “UAV pilot club” to strengthen officers’ and enlisted personnel’s drone-operating skills.
Overall:
Modern bridge facilities with panoramic 360 deg data projection;
Improved local passive protection for bridge/CIC;
2 Distributed masts with X/S band sensor field;
Fuzed upper hemisphere visible/nIR/mwIR sensor field with backup targeting;
Modern silencing and higher speed silent running, ideally fully leveraging IEPS;
Flexible reserve propulsion(batteries, reserve power sources able to propel ship via IEPS).
DEW installation;
Hardkill TPS;
Integrated last ditch, low power requirement drone detection and hard intercept installation, ideally safe even for port calls.
Ideally, either integration of 555 into H/AJK-16, or integration of HQ-16F into UVLS.
Size, VLS requirements otherwise - depending on what 054C is meant to achieve. If it's just a next frigate in the line - this is it，higher requirement can be skipped or even toned down(555 doesn't sound all that much worse than HQ-16C, and we remember noises about quad-packed light VLS ASCMs); in this case, just 16 compact UVLS cells can work out and still provide net capability gain over 054A series.
If it's replacement for 051bc/052(b)/956e(m) - ideally, increased weapon fit with 16-24 full depth UVLS cells and ~24-32 ones able to accept HQ-16F missiles; flag and improved processing facilities.
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Personally I don't really care about propulsion. Ships are mainly mainly missile carriers, so what I want to see are good missiles populating the ship.
If type 054B is 50% bigger than 054A in displacement, then it should also have an equal quality armament upgrade. But 054B uses the exact same armament package as the 054A, which is the disappointment.
My expectation will be that if 054C comes out, it should atleast have 32 UVLS or 48 HQ-16 size VLS or maybe a new type of VLS that can carry a new SAM that we saw in the parades last year. Lets say HQ-9C or HQ-20. Maybe they can carry 32 of these new SAMs with 100+ KM range. This is a good upgrade that fits well with the new radar that 054B got.
Another big disappointment is the subsonic YJ-83 when China has like 10+ Hypersonic missiles designs available. So, replacing the YJ-83 with a hypersonic missile is a must.
And no, these capabilities will not make the 054C an equal to 052D. But it will be much closer to 052D, and that is okay since the displacement is so close to 052D.
Ideally 052D will be succeeded by a 10K ton destroyer so there will be no overlap between the frigate and the destroyer. Then 055 successor will be even bigger as well. Overall expectation is that all PLA surface ships will be slightly bigger than the last generation and also have an armament and radar upgrade.
The 360 degree data projection on the Mogami is pretty much just a gimmick. No other modern CIC uses it because there's just no point. Also the prisms on each side of the radar mast may be upper hemisphere staring optical sensors, though i am not sure. Otherwise I think this makes sense.
As people have pointed out numerous times when you've made this argument, hypersonics have a much wider minimum range than subsonic cruise missiles like YJ-83 and are much less maneuverable to boot, which could make them much less useful in the opening stages of a conflict, with American and Chinese vessels opening fire on each other from mere hundreds or even dozens of kilometers apart rather than thousands. That's not to say that hypersonics are less useful, of course, far from it, but YJ-83 still has a niche, one that a frigate designed for relatively lower intensity missions is particularly well suited for.