TWZ is always a salt mine when it comes to anything non-US..
054B/new generation frigate
- Thread starter Blitzo
- Start date
The type of VLS is what I'm really interested in at this point and also the ship's official designation. Type 054B or 057. Why 054B if that ends up being it?
It would be nice if PLA was more transparent about some basic things like every other military around the world is.
Also for a ship that is boosting radar reduction design features, the main gun is a huge eyesore. It feels like rushed job more than an inherent design. It's quite possible this might be a one off. Have to wait and see other subsequent launches.
It would be nice if PLA was more transparent about some basic things like every other military around the world is.
Also for a ship that is boosting radar reduction design features, the main gun is a huge eyesore. It feels like rushed job more than an inherent design. It's quite possible this might be a one off. Have to wait and see other subsequent launches.
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It could be anything.
Could be an X band AESA as well. On a modern warship there are often so many flat faced arrays for a variety of roles, that often we cannot tell what they are.
I don't think we necessarily need to take our guidance of PLA watching from the likes of The War Zone, even if they are quoting someone like Alex/@para80 who knows what they are talking about.
Ultimately, the lack of visible slant launchers at this stage could be a result of any combination of things, including the fact that during launch the boxes are usually not present and even the frames may not be easily visible, that the amidships deck seems somewhat hidden by the rather high solid side covers of that part of the hull, and that current angles of the ship aren't at an appropriate height to verify or rule out anything.
I would say though, that some of the more recent CGIs done by artists who seemingly have had first hand knowledge of how the ship appears ahead of the releases of photos, have consistently not depicted an aft VLS position.
Still, if it does have rear VLS for AShMs (which by definition would have to be the UVLS), then that would be a neat capability addition and be somewhat beneficial for its flexibility, but at the end of the day I wouldn't say it is a decisive capability for 054B.
Were 054A launched with or without slant launchers?
Just to be clear here, I offered this possibility in the sense of "all options are still on the table unless visually confirmed otherwise". As I said also, I think AShM amidships is the more likely configuration, with I'm guessing YJ-12 as the likely candidate. But ultimately since I draw my information from here and the same places everyone here already reads, as is said, none of that should be particularly revealing. The target audience for the War Zone in that regard is not this forum.
The ones I checked where the 054AP for Pakistan and they did have their AShM launch racks fitted on launch at Hudong. The actual missile boxes are always added much later, just to be clear. I wasnt suggesting otherwise but I get that this may have been phrased badly.
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Now I can be quite sure (maybe 95-98% sure?) that there is also a protrusion deck behind the fore superstructure.
Hence, the amount of deck space left for either the missile canisters or the VLS in the amidship section isn't going to be a lot either. So it's going to be either canisters or VLS, and not both canisters and VLS - Amidships.
In ths meantime, until we can get a photograph taken at a significantly higher altitude, I think that trying to dig any deeper into the "canister or VLS" hole right now is going to lead us nowhere (though, I'm still leaning towards the canisters for now).
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Aye, very much so.
Take the RSN Formidable Class frigates as an example. At launch, it was pretty much accepted that it would have a load out that was par for course for a vessel of that size, ie. 2x4 AShM amidship.
It's only later that it surfaced that the Formidable class ships are FFNW 6x4 AShM.
6 mount points are available in the multi purpose space amidship for slant launchers for a total possible fitout of 24 AShm.
Modern, signature managed hull forms can hide a lot from nosy milnutters.
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How much of a difference does it make for the 054B to have 8 fewer anti-ship missiles compared to the Constellation? I know that you have mentioned that YJ-12 is bigger, faster, and has a longer range than the NSM/Harpoon, but it is not that difficult for the USN and its allies to intercept the YJ-12 with ESSMs. In other words, when launched in salvos in a Mexican standoff with the Constellations, the 054As have theoretically less anti-surface munitions. What do you think?