052C/052D Class Destroyers

156 Zibo is first "long" 052D, or 052D v2.0. 161 Hohhot is first 052D v1.5.

156 pennant means getting assigned with the East Sea Fleet 6th Destroyer squadron, along with 150, 151, 152, 153, 154, 155. Probably PLAN's most active if not most experienced destroyer division in terms of blue water deployment, like Gulf of Aden escort missions, Liaoning escort, and West Pacific exercises. Unit also has a bunch of Type 054A.

161 pennant means getting assigned with the South Sea Fleet 2nd Destroyer squadron, along with 167 Shenzhen, 168 Guangzhou and 169 Wuhan. This unit escorts amphibious units of the South Sea Fleet, namely Type 071 ships. However, 168 and 169 are currently disabled and in the refit stage, leaving the unit with only two destroyers and mostly Type 054A frigates.

Going back to the picture with 101 Nanchang, which is taken on board a 052D destroyer. Most likely this destroyer is 131 Taiyuan, which is assigned to the same base in Qingdao. This shot should have been taken some time before 131 Taiyuan left with the 35th Escort Task Force. The only other 052D in the North Seas Fleet are 120 Chengdu and 121 Qiqihar, assigned with the 10th, but both these ships are v1.5 of the 052D and have Type 1130 for their front CIWS.

Tam said:

156 Zibo is first "long" 052D, or 052D v2.0. 161 Hohhot is first 052D v1.5.

156 pennant means getting assigned with the East Sea Fleet 6th Destroyer squadron, along with 150, 151, 152, 153, 154, 155. Probably PLAN's most active if not most experienced destroyer division in terms of blue water deployment, like Gulf of Aden escort missions, Liaoning escort, and West Pacific exercises. Unit also has a bunch of Type 054A.

161 pennant means getting assigned with the South Sea Fleet 2nd Destroyer squadron, along with 167 Shenzhen, 168 Guangzhou and 169 Wuhan. This unit escorts amphibious units of the South Sea Fleet, namely Type 071 ships. However, 168 and 169 are currently disabled and in the refit stage, leaving the unit with only two destroyers and mostly Type 054A frigates.

Going back to the picture with 101 Nanchang, which is taken on board a 052D destroyer. Most likely this destroyer is 131 Taiyuan, which is assigned to the same base in Qingdao. This shot should have been taken some time before 131 Taiyuan left with the 35th Escort Task Force. The only other 052D in the North Seas Fleet are 120 Chengdu and 121 Qiqihar, assigned with the 10th, but both these ships are v1.5 of the 052D and have Type 1130 for their front CIWS.

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131 is assigned to the East Sea Fleet, based in Zhoushan.

A.Man said:

131 is assigned to the East Sea Fleet, based in Zhoushan.

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Yes, same destroyer squadron as 136, 137, 138 and 139, all Project 956 Sovremenny.

Sorry, it should be 117 or 118 that accompanied 101 Nanchang in that photo. 115, 116, 117, 118 are the usual Liaoning escorts from the same base.

1st Division only has 2 052D assigned to it, 117 and 118. 115 and 116 are the only other destroyers and both long in the tooth by now as they are 051C. This lack of 052D assignment makes me think this division will get as many as four 055 alone, numbered 101 to 104, based on rumor one ship will get pennant 104. The number assignment is strange but originally 1st Division had started with 101 (Anshan), then went up the 10X numbers with ex-Grezny destroyers (4) followed by Ludas afterwards, before being topped by 112 and 113 Type 052. I expect that once 112, 113, 115 and 116 are retired, these penannts won't be reused until the 10X numbers are all used up, with 11X numbers only to be used on top of that.

3rd Destroyer Division struggles with only one 052D, 131. The rest are Sovremenny which is expected to get refits. The Sovremenny are 136, 137, 138 and 139. So there is a gap of pennant numbers, 132, 133, 134, and 135. 132, 133, and 134 are expected to be the long 052D. This makes me wonder what 135 is, whether it will be a 052D long or 055, or whether they will ever use that pennant. Filling 135 would mean an excess past 25 052D or 8 055.

2nd Destroyer Division has 161 Hohhot, along with 167 Shenzhen and the two 052D, 168 and 169 in refit. 162, 163 and 164 are expected to be 052D. This leaves you with 165 and 166 if they will ever be used, and if so, are they going to be 052D or 055. If 052D, this would require an excess past the 25 ship production.

6th Destroyer Division will get 157 after 156. 157 should be 052D long. Will pennant 158 and 159 be used --- if 052D long, would require an excess of the 052D production past 25; if 055, would require 055 to be past 8 ships. This destroyer division at the end, will have a grand total of 8 modern destroyers, 4 052C, 2 052D and 2 052D long.

9th Destroyer Division has 170 to 175, a total of 6 destroyers, two 052D and four 052D. Unless the 052D total production will exceed 25, its not going to get any 052D long. This makes me think they will get 055.

10th Destroyer Division, the infamous "old geezer" destroyer division known as the dumping ground of Ludas, is having a massive renovation. Instead, almost all except for one which is 163, the Dalian 052D long production are being dumped there. This should make number 122, 123, 124, and 125.

If four Type 055 are assigned 101 to 104, my initial hypothesis is that the other four Type 055 will be headed to the South Seas Fleet. Two may go with the 2nd Division (165 and 166) and two may go with the 9th Division (176, 177). 2nd Division covers the submarine base in Hainan, while 9th Division covers all the LPDs and amphibous forces in Guangzhou, which is likely where two 075 is headed.

Filling all the pennant gaps in all divisions, if there was any intention, would exceed past the current 25 ship production of 052D and 8 ship production Type 055.

or it could be that each fleet doesnt stick with 2 flotillas each

if they make each fleet cored around these flotillas

1 x CG flotilla (4 x Type 055)
3 x DDG flotilla ( 4 x Type 052C/D) mix these with older units
3 x FFG flotilla (4 x Type 054A mixed with older units)

SSF, NSF and ESF have 7 surface flotillas each overall 21 flotillas or 84 warships

eventually build up the cruiser flotillas to 3 to have 9 flotillas per fleet

or
12 x Type 055
36 x Type 052C/D made up of 6 x Type 052C + 24 x Type 052D plus older units
36 x Type 054A/054/053H

SSF 167-170, 171-174, 175-178
ESF 150-153, 154-157, 136-139 (replace Sovs)
NSF 112-115, 116-119, 120-123

Of the PLAN's six DESFLOTs, they traditionally each had 4-5 DDGs and 4-5 FFGs each.

That provided a full naval strength of about 24-30 destroyers and 24-30 frigates depending on the specific year.


IMO another alternative orbat structure we may see is that they never of DESFLOTs remain the same, but the number of destroyers and frigates in each DESFLOT will continue to increase.
Specifically, this is premised on the assumption that the PLAN considers 055s to be destroyers, and also on the assumption that an 054B class is in the works (which is strongly suggested by this point in time as well).

I can imagine each DESFLOT eventually reaching a strength of 10 DDGs and 10 FFGs for a total naval strength of 60 DDGs and 60 FFGs in the navy overall.
Of the 10 DDGs, they could be divided into weight class, for example if we're using 055, 052D and speculative 054B and 054A displacements, we could break it down as such:
5 x 13k ton category destroyers
5 x 7.5k ton category destroyers
5 x 5.5k ton category frigates
5 x 4k ton category frigates


... Of course this all depends on the eventual run of how many 055s they build, whether there will be a successor class to the 052D in the same weight category, and how many 054Bs they go for.

For one thing, we have had strong hints for quite a few years now that 055 production will not be ending with the initial batch of 055s, and that a successor "055A" (tentatively dubbed) is in the works, and has been spoken of as having a greater production run than the vanilla 055s.

Typically a Destroyer Squadron has 10 reserved pennant numbers. When the numbers "overflow", it reverses back to the starting number.

Case in point, 3rd Division ESF. Numbers 130 to 134 are filled with Luda class destroyers, so the Sovremennys begin with 136. For some reason 135 is missing. Then you have the four Sovs filling up 136, 137, 138 and 139. Then they get their first 052D. But instead of getting 140, the number wraps back to 131, which previously belongs a non deactivated Luda class, the Nanjing. Not sure why 130 is not used however. Subsequent future destroyers will start with 132 and continue to 135. 136 to 139 will only be made available once again once the four Sovs are retired.

The wrap around indicates that 140 to 149 is reserved, likely for a potential future destroyer division. 150 to 159 belongs to the 6th Division ESF.

There is one case of pennant overflow and that is with the 1st Division NSF. 101 to 104 belonged to Gnevny class destroyers. All are museum ships, but maybe because they are the first four destroyers of the PLAN, their numbers are "sacred" and reserved. Because of that, the numbers overflowed into the 11X range.

From 105 to 110, the numbers went to Ludas. 111 is missing however for some reason. Then you have 112 and 113, Qingdao and Harbin, the pair of Type 052. 114 is missing, my theory is that this was reserved for an aborted Type 051B, given that the ship class should be in pairs and the 051B is missing one. 115 and 116 follows as Type 051C. When the 052D came, they took up the numbers 117, 118 and 119. The pennants were already reserved in advance even before the first Type 055 was pre assigned with its pennant.

When the first Type 055 came, you get the wraparound from 119 to 101, instead of moving to 120. Note that 120 to 129 is reserved for the 10th Division, NSF, with 120 going to a 052D named Chengdu. So there is policy change that releases the four Gnevny class pennants 101 to 104. Future 055 and 052DL/E headed to the 1st Division will have to use the numbers 102 to 109. When 112, 113, 115 and 116 is retired, its likely those numbers will not be used again. In the future once 117 to 119 are retired, the entire 110 to 119 pennant range is going to be reserved for a destroyer division of its own, although that is not going to happen for a long time.

You have more pennant wraparound with the 2nd Division SSF. 160 to 166 was filled with Ludas, now retired or retiring. Type 051B gets 167, and pair of Type 052B gets 168 and 169. When they get their first 052D, it wraps down to 161. I am not sure why 160 is not used though, it maybe reserved in the long run. The number does not go from 169 to 170, because 170 already belongs to a Type 052C belonging to the 9th Division SSF, the Lanzhou. Future destroyers going to the 2nd will use the numbers 162 to 166, with 167 to 169 free again for future destroyers once the current ships are retired.

On larger picture, each Fleet has a total of 30 assigned pennants for destroyers, of which around 20 is more or less active and the rest are reserved.

NSF starts from 101 to 129.
ESF starts from 131 to 159. 140 to 149 is reserved.
SSF starts from 160 to 179. 180 to 189 is reserved.

The frigate pennants I have not taken the time to figure out yet. Next time for that.

with the launch of the 7th x Type 055 I personally believe the production of the Type 052D/L should be ceased

they did well with this hull going from Type 052C 48 VLS to Type 052D with 64 VLS

after 24 units or even 30 units just stop, no need for a Type 052E!? what more can they do

JNCX + DL have pumped 2.5 units per year for over a decade and since 2017 also Type 055 2 units per year

if both shipyards solely focus on Type 055A they could manage 3-4 x Type 055A each year rather than 2

two 5 year plans could produce between 30-40 x Type 055/A/B until 2030

asif iqbal said:

with the launch of the 7th x Type 055 I personally believe the production of the Type 052D/L should be ceased

they did well with this hull going from Type 052C 48 VLS to Type 052D with 64 VLS

after 24 units or even 30 units just stop, no need for a Type 052E!? what more can they do

JNCX + DL have pumped 2.5 units per year for over a decade and since 2017 also Type 055 2 units per year

if both shipyards solely focus on Type 055A they could manage 3-4 x Type 055A each year rather than 2

two 5 year plans could produce between 30-40 x Type 055/A/B until 2030

Click to expand...

I doubt there's going to be that many 055...

There's already 50 destroyers (not counting the last couple of 051) that are either in service, launched, or in production right now.
(1*051B, 2*051C, 2*052, 2*052B, 6*052C, 25*052D/L, 8*055, and those 4 sovremenny) Plus there's already 30 054A... USN have 22 Tico and 67 Burke right now but they don't have any real frigates so they are actually doing a lot of the frigate jobs as well.

There will be more 055 or 055A, but they're also going to make 20-30 of the new frigates. And there'll be a lot more subs, LHDs and other ships. The next 10 years will still be busy, but I doubt they are going to pump out 055 like they did for 052D. I believe the focus will gradually shift away from piling surface combatants.

And remember these things are like twice as big as 052D...

I would be happy if I'm wrong tho XD