052/052B Class Destroyers

adeptitus

Captain
VIP Professional
Fan art on refit 052B.

o71te1.jpg


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Since the 052B is already equipped with MR-SAM and 730 CIWS, the priority for upgrade probably goes to 051B and 052 first. The 051B refit is already in progress and I am very curious about plans for the 052 ships.
 

Blitzo

Lieutenant General
Staff member
Super Moderator
Registered Member
Since the 052B is already equipped with MR-SAM and 730 CIWS, the priority for upgrade probably goes to 051B and 052 first. The 051B refit is already in progress and I am very curious about plans for the 052 ships.

The two 052 class were refitted just in 2011, I doubt they'll be doing another refit before they're retired.

It will be a major hassle to refit them with MR SAMs and it almost definitely will not be worth it, especially considering how many 054As are (and will be) in service, let alone 052C/Ds.
 

Iron Man

Major
Registered Member
Bridge sits way too low in the structure on this lead warship 169

I guess on redesign Type 052C took that into account
The Type 346 was not ready at the time the 052Bs were built, so there was no reason to design a higher superstructure than what we currently see on the 052B.
 

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
Since the 052B is already equipped with MR-SAM and 730 CIWS, the priority for upgrade probably goes to 051B and 052 first. The 051B refit is already in progress and I am very curious about plans for the 052 ships.
I would not expect the Type 52B to be done until all the Sovs are done.

And since it seems they are going to do 137, I expect later they will do 138 and 139 too. If they do, I also think at some point they will add the same type of upgrade to the Type 52Bs that they have to the SOVs.

Time will tell and they may not...but if they do all four Sovs I can see no reason why they wouldn't do the Type 052B since in essence they are the PLAN version of the Sov already.

As I say...time will tell.
 

Tam

Brigadier
Registered Member
There is a case for upgrading the Type 052B, that's quite stronger than let's say, upgrading the Type 054. Its because of the Russian equipment and munitions used on the Type 052B, whereas the Type 054 uses Chinese equipment, which integrates better with the rest of the fleet, and one the country can easily refresh and self supply the missiles such as the HQ-7s for it. Over time, it becomes harder and harder to service the Russian equipment, which becomes more expensive over time and when they break, they threaten the ship's readiness. The Shtils have a shelf life of 10 years, and given the age of these ships, that period has passed. In the current design, the Shtil launcher and the deflector on the back screams radar signature

Upgrading the 052B poses its own problems. I believe the front has enough space to put in as much as 48 VLS cels, maybe more. But let's assume 32 VLS cells would be sufficient. The Shtil launcher can be replaced by a HQ-10 launcher. Predictably, the MR-710, the Bandstand and the Orekh radar sets gets replaced by their Chinese equivalents.

Certainly a lot of space in the front.

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There is a second launcher on the back, with its cache of missiles. This is somewhat offset to the side, one side higher, with the helicopter hanger, the other side lower, with the Shtil arm launcher and missile stock.


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I think you can rework the back so you can remove the launcher and the missiles, and turn that into a second hanger, with support to put another HQ-10 launcher on top in between the two hangers. I would move the antisubmarine mortars from the front to the rear on top of the hangers.
 

Iron Man

Major
Registered Member
Upgrading the 052B poses its own problems. I believe the front has enough space to put in as much as 48 VLS cels, maybe more. But let's assume 32 VLS cells would be sufficient. The Shtil launcher can be replaced by a HQ-10 launcher. Predictably, the MR-710, the Bandstand and the Orekh radar sets gets replaced by their Chinese equivalents.
PDrgjWt.jpg
I think it's a virtual certainty that the 052B will be upgraded with H/AKJ-16 VL cells, though I think there is not enough space for 48 cells in the front. They may get rid of the step platform underneath the forward Shtil launcher and turn that area into a 32-cell VLS that is flush with the foredeck, while keeping the platform intact in the area where the decoy launchers are located. The centerline area in between the launchers certainly would not be usable for VLS cells given the blast the decoy launchers would generate.
PDrgjWt.jpg

The only question for me is whether they will install VLS in the back after the rear Shtil launcher is removed. Given they installed only 32 VL cells on the larger Sovs, I doubt they will go for 32 + 16 cells on the 052Bs. They may just add a second hangar instead.
 
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