@Tam
Adding a dedicated S/C band would negate the price benefit that a frigate would provide over building a destroyer.
Not really. Have you heard about scaling down an AESA> Let's say, instead of an AESA that uses 6,000 T/R elements, let's use a much smaller one with only 3,000. Instead of let's say, 4 faces of 6,000 elements each, lets use only one face of 3,000 elements and rotate it around.
That, and -16Uvls, is pretty much the only thing that makes it different from being a 052d in terms of a2/ad destroyer.
Also, I'm not sure if that's the best position to put ECM, rather it is for volume search.
In terms of height, its the same position as 052d and 055.
For ECM, putting 2 larger sensors on broadside makes much more sense like on 055.
ECM is better placed broadside where it is closer to where the antiship missile is targeting the ship, which is broadside at the hull. ESM can be placed where you put ECM there, but it is better placed on top to give you the best radar horizon. ESM acts like passive radar --- it detects threat signals. Guess who makes the threat signals? That's right, the incoming sea skimming anti-ship missile. The missile will be using its radar guidance system to search and lock to its target, which is you. When it does, and the moment it does, your ESM will pick it up and alert you of it. ESM has techniques like TDOA, FDOA and triangulation, that will be used to geolocate, triangulate and direction find the threat emitter, as well as potentially identify the emitter.
On top of the mast of the 055, you will see two half cylinders sticking out. You can see it in this Type 057 concept artwork. Those cylinders are ESM. To be more precise, Type 726-1 or SRW-321A. You see this with Type 052C and D destroyers and also with the two carriers and the 075. It is also present with the Type 056. That is just one of the ESM sets used on the ship. Given that the ESM sets on the Chinese warships tend to be at least two, three or four sets, the others have to be located elsewhere, usually at rear of the deck house before the base of the mast, and a set just before the aft VLS (Type 052D). In addition on the Type 054A and 056, there are long tube shaped antenna, these are also ESM or radar receivers for warning, that are set on top of the mast and a pair on each side. On the Type 056 or 056A, there are a pair of tubes that are sticking out like scarecrow arms on a small mast behind the HQ-10. That's also ESM.
The two large panels you see on the 055, below the bridge wing, they are ECM. But they are not just sensors. They are jammers which makes them active. I believe they are the next generation of EW system for the PLAN that replaces the modular Type 726 system first introduced with the Type 052C. What I refer to as ESM and not ECM, ESM don't emit anything. They are dedicated passive sensors that process ambient signals.
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