The 346B does have a GaN array. I wonder if at least the later 346As might as well.
052C/052D Class Destroyers
- Thread starter Jeff Head
- Start date
You're looking at the PLAN of 2014 through the lens of 2025. Chinese military technology has advanced very rapidly in the last decade, pretty much catching up to Western military technology, and possibly exceeding European and Japanese technology in the interim in many aspects, but back in 2014 is another matter. Also, note that the 052D came out just 2 years prior to the 055 and nobody is out here trying to claim that class uses GaN.
Lethe
Captain
The news that 346B on 055 was a GaN-based solution was received with interest precisely because it reaffirmed that China was on the cutting edge of technology deployment in this regard. But this had already been demonstrated to be the case, with the first 052Cs equipped with Type 346 AESA being commissioned in 2005, only a couple of years after Thales APAR (which Thales claims to be the world's first naval AESA, though Mitsubishi OPS-24 on Japan's Asagiri-class destroyers may dispute this) debuted on Dutch De Zeven Provincien-class and German F124 frigate designs from 2002, and well before AESA showed up on USA, British, French or Italian designs. If you are going to take a skeptical view as to the plausibility of China matching western radar developments with only a few years delay, it seems to me that you would want to go all the way back to question just how Type 346 on 052C exists.
The development of Type 346 series is evidently the product of a continuous, high priority, research and development program. Even if it were not clear that GaN 346B would actually be ready for 055, it would certainly have been on the near-term roadmap such that 055 would've been designed from the outset to accommodate its future fitment. If GaN 346B turns out to be ready in time, great. If not, fall back to GaA 346A or enlarged variant thereof, as with systems changes visible between 054 and 054A only a few years apart. Alternatively, if 346B is seen to be progressing rapidly enough, and its inclusion is assessed as high priority, then the entire project can be held/reworked until it is ready, as with 003 being reworked to accommodate electromagnetic rather than steam catapults owing to rapid progress of the former.
Both the launch and commissioning dates of first 052D and first 055 are ~5 years apart.
Last edited:
What news? Do you have an article from a reliable source that you can link that confirms the 055 uses GaN?
Launch and commissioning dates are irrelevant if you are using build start dates as a stand-in for technological level, since designs are almost always finalized prior to the start of building.
When was the last time we got any such confirmation for an in service PLA radar? We look at the suppliers and we see they deliver a lot of GaN.
It was in a Sheikh PC hadith.
Lethe
Captain
No I don't. I think it is reasonable to question the basis of the widely accepted assertion that Type 346B is a GaN-based radar. What I disagree with is how you have framed the question, i.e. asserting that Type 346B probably isn't GaN-based, even though Germany and Japan were also validating and fielding GaN-based naval radars in the same timeframe, because China was not then in their technological league. This despite China having already established an impressive record in the timely deployment of new radar technologies, as with the introduction of KJ-2000 in the early 2000s and the original Type 346 radar on 052C in mid-2000s. The skepticism appears unwarranted.
You referred to a notional 2-year gap between 052D and 055. This figure can only be arrived at by comparing the two projects at different points in their development cycles, which is entirely uninformative. If you are fixated on systems design maturity for 055 as of 2014 when construction is said to have begun, the equivalent point for 052D was sure as shit not in 2012 when 172 Kunming was launched.
Last edited:
FriedRiceNSpice
Captain
You seem to not be able to comprehend the fact that a ship can be designed for a radar system that is not yet ready. Even without having a physical working radar set, the key specs, ie power needs, cooling needs, size and weight, can be determined far in advance.
Last edited: