054/A FFG Thread II

[tphuang]

more up close photos of the 4th 054A. From the looks of all the sensors and weaponry, everything seem to be set. The only thing it lacks before going to service is the painting of the number.

btw, this ship has already come back from the sea trials and done the final paint to PLAN requirements, including the aftmast and funnel painted black.

 

[A.Man]

The 5th & 7th 054A's of HP or The 9th & 13th 054A's Of The ToTal

The 6th 054A Of HP or The 11th of Total 054A

 

[sealordlawrence]

A. Man,

It is not the 13th until we see a sixth unit at HD.

 

[tphuang]

at this point, it looks like the 6th and 7th 054A from HP shipyard will join the navy at the same time the 5th one from HD shipyard joins. btw, finally got some picture of the ship behind the rescue ship. It's quite clear that it is the 6th 054A, so the one next to the 5th one should be the 7th.

 

[sealordlawrence]

Which means we have 12 054A class ships in total, which in turn means that the 054/054A class has matched the production of the Jiangwei class.

 

[HKSDU]

Which means we have 12 054A class ships in total, which in turn means that the 054/054A class has matched the production of the Jiangwei class.

ehh...if its the 7th then there should be 14 that will enter service, right? they are produced in pairs aren't they.

 

[Jeff Head]

ehh...if its the 7th then there should be 14 that will enter service, right? they are produced in pairs aren't they.

Seven from HP, five from HD. That's the twelve.

I bet they are not finished yet...but time will tell.

I'm anxious to see of there are actually more 52Cs coming behind the ones we see being built and fitted out now as well.

 

[Red Moon]

Seven from HP, five from HD. That's the twelve.

I bet they are not finished yet...but time will tell.

I'm anxious to see of there are actually more 52Cs coming behind the ones we see being built and fitted out now as well.

For whatever it's worth, I have my own speculation on this: the recent burst of construction, primarily 054A's and 052C's, was a contingency decision in response to the troubles around the Korean peninsula and the Sea of Japan. This would explain a number of things which seem puzzling to me.

• Around mid-year 2010, it had seemed little construction was going on. There was an 071 and, so it seemed, they were rounding out what we expected would be 10 054A's. Then we got a number of surprises.

• The first surprise was rumors of new destroyers.

• Then, new O54A's, which appeared practically completed. Were they built in a rush?

• The 071 was completed much more quickly than anybody expected.

• The destroyers turned out to be 052C's, while everybody expected a further development. In the scenario I'm presenting, they opted for a tested design rather than a new one, because they wanted the ships to be functional soon.

• The Varyag, which had been moving quite smoothly, all of a sudden seems to have stalled a bit. Whereas it was clear from a while back that they would start installing sensors, for some reason, the AESA radars are still not there. An explanation would be that the radars intended for the Varyag were instead used on the first of the 052C's.

Of course, there are other explanations for all of these things, but to me, this is a possibility.

 

[delft]

Ships need some parts that are ordered years in advance. For those British QE carriers these long lead time items are already ordered when the first vessel was to be completed in 2016?. They are now delayed off course.
The long lead time items for the successors of 52C's and 54A's will have been used in the ships now building, which seems possible.

 

[EDIATH]

As far as I know, Chinese armed force needs to spend by budget, since they can't borrow from commercial lenders the way local civilian governments do. The procurement plan as part of the annual budget must be approved beforehand for the funds to be available, and as shipbuilders are all independent contractors they are unlikely to add a warship into their schedule before the first installment is paid. The "rush-build" theory can hardly bypass the budgetary & transactional process unless in times of war.

Besides to boost the productivity in a modern shipyard one has to either streamline the process or add more productionlines, the old trick of hiring more labour force just won't cut it. There's no sign this is happening in HD or HP, instead we're seeing parts are piling up outside HP, the possibilities are endless. Personally I suspect some of the 054A orders (from 2009 perhaps) were shifted to HP as HD is loaded with other orders (we just saw 071 but who knows a brand new LHD might appear afterwards?).