A little disappointed, the vls of 054B and 054A is the same type
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If they made this ship way too different from the 054A like hanger for 2 helis, 48 cells, IEP, etc, then it would be given a new series....057. All those features requires a complete redesign.
Like I wrote before in a previous comment, they built this ship just to stretch it out for the Z-20 and then put on a better radar suite on it; essentially borrowing from the current tech. And they wanted more room for the crew as well on the long voyages where it also need to keep up with others.
The integrated masts and that double-sided radar is throwing many off, leaving expectation that this ship should be a next gen FFG apart from the 054A when in reality that's not what PLAN was going for. They are pretty satisfied with 054A and wanted something marginally better.
Regardless the naming convention of PLAN is very confusing. The 052series confused me and now the 054series. I don't know what determines a new series.