052C/052D Class Destroyers

This is an old photo dated July 8 of 2016, but AFAIK, it's not been shared before. The original caption says, "Sailors of Guided Missile Destroyer Hefei searching for 'Blue Force' targets."

, which provides a very detailed look at the UI and control interface.

I can't place these consoles anywhere in the CIC, whose layout I speculated on previously. These are unlikely to be sonar consoles, since we already know what they look like. Judging by the Chinese characters on , these sailors are probably radar operators. The question is which radar; I think the most likely candidate is the surface search radar.

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At Dalian...

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by78 said:

This is an old photo dated July 8 of 2016, but AFAIK, it's not been shared before. The original caption says, "Sailors of Guided Missile Destroyer Hefei searching for 'Blue Force' targets."

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, which provides a very detailed look at the UI and control interface.

I can't place these consoles anywhere in the CIC, whose layout I speculated on previously. These are unlikely to be sonar consoles, since we already know what they look like. Judging by the Chinese characters on

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, these sailors are probably radar operators. The question is which radar; I think the most likely candidate is the surface search radar.

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The ergonomics seem rather poor here. These consoles look like they are designed for taller people than the actual people sitting at them.

Those designs must be set by the size requirements of the monitors along with desk height. Maybe they can improve on it with better and adjustable chairs. Looks like there's room between their laps and the bottom of the desk panel.

ougoah said:

Those designs must be set by the size requirements of the monitors along with desk height. Maybe they can improve on it with better and adjustable chairs. Looks like there's room between their laps and the bottom of the desk panel.

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Yes, desk height is a part of the design specifications. Which in this case is clearly too high (for these guys at least). Ideally their elbows should be at or above the level of the desktop when in a relaxed arm position ("neutral posture"). Their eye level is too low relative to the angle of the bottom screen and way too low relative to the angle of the upper screen. This could be solved with a higher seat setting, but the fact that all three people are too low/short for their consoles suggests to me that the consoles are likely the problem.

Iron Man said:

The ergonomics seem rather poor here. These consoles look like they are designed for taller people than the actual people sitting at them.

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Exactly! That's what I've complained about for a long time. Still, it's better than what they got before, when operators had to raise their arms almost to shoulder level just to access the keyboards.

It really boggles my mind how Chinese defense industry is still so generally inept at basic ergonomics.

by78 said:

Exactly! That's what I've complained about for a long time. Still, it's better than what they got before, when operators had to raise their arms almost to shoulder level just to access the keyboards.

It really boggles my mind how Chinese defense industry is still so generally inept at basic ergonomics.

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Looks like PLAN needs to hire a CEO .. Chief Ergonomics Officer ... but in all seriousness you do make a good point. From standardization of uniforms, equipment to something as basic as ergonomics, sometimes these small lil things do matter. It has to be a whole culture change from top down with attention to detail made at every levels and all aspects.
I do give them credit where credit is due.. they are heading in the right direction. 20 years ago, crew comfort and productivity is almost non existent! Outside of NATO and a few other top tier militaries, these things are usually not even considered in the design specifications.

Iron Man said:

The ergonomics seem rather poor here. These consoles look like they are designed for taller people than the actual people sitting at them.

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I don't see a problem here they have primary and secondary console The primary console is right where they should be So what is the problem I think you are the one that has problem

kwaigonegin said:

Looks like PLAN needs to hire a CEO .. Chief Ergonomics Officer ... but in all seriousness you do make a good point. From standardization of uniforms, equipment to something as basic as ergonomics, sometimes these small lil things do matter. It has to be a whole culture change from top down with attention to detail made at every levels and all aspects.
I do give them credit where credit is due.. they are heading in the right direction. 20 years ago, crew comfort and productivity is almost non existent! Outside of NATO and a few other top tier militaries, these things are usually not even considered in the design specifications.

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LOL yeah the USN LCSs are highly ergonomic game-changers I guess

Hendrik_2000 said:

I don't see a problem here they have primary and secondary console The primary console is right where they should be So what is the problem I think you are the one that has problem
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I agree. I also don’t see any issues with their consoles. As you can see, the bottom monitors are positioned at the sailors’ eye levels. That should be fine.

I also don’t see any problem with the sailors having to position their arms up a little. In fact, placing their arms higher forces them to sit up straight, which is key to not damaging their backs. When they sit too “comfortably”, their backs are inevitably more hunched, which is NOT good to their backs.

I am very experienced with using microscopes. When I was in grad school, I used to spend more than 10 hours/day in front of a microscope at a time. The first lesson I got from my advisor was that I needed to position the binoculars on the microscope higher. This way, I would have to sit up straight in front of the scope. When I now train my students and postdocs, I always emphasize that they need to position the microscope higher so that they don’t damage their backs.

Of course, I have colleagues who like to sit more “comfortably” at the scope, with the binocular eye piece positioned slightly below their eye level and their arms comfortably resting on the table at a slightly lower level. And they do this, their backs are always hunched. And almost always, these people complain about back pain after sitting at the microscope for a long time (more than 3-4 hours).

As you can see in the photo, these sailors sit up with their backs straight. This is a good posture to protect their backs.