So basically everything we wanted except heli deck stretch is already there. Extending the ship should be very easy I wonder why they are not doing it.
Edit: I suppose speed and range could be better. OHP the long retired frigate is currently faster. It is kind of a bottleneck in a fleet at least on paper. Thoughts?
OHP powered by gas turbines.
054A went with diesels because its cheap, its proven, and it was designed at a time when China is still trying to develop gas turbines, so availability, scalability, performance and reliability of domestic gas turbines were not guaranteed. A diesel based frigate would be a way to temporarily circumvent that problem.
I do not think this is a fleet bottleneck because it isn't the frigate's purpose to act as a carrier escort. The requirements for a carrier escort surface combat vessel would surely raise the ship's tonnage and capabilities to the point you are reinventing the 052D. It becomes redundant and you might as well refine the 052D and gets its production cost lowered.
The point of getting the ship to have IEP is not about speed but to make it more quiet as a sub hunter. I expect the ship to act as a screen ahead of the main fleets, and use to scout and patrol bottlenecks and operate alongside and in the cover of 052D and 055.
