Do we know what the smaller panels are for? I'm guessing the one below the main panel may be a X-band for missile tracking/command? What about the 4 on the base?
054B/new generation frigate
- Thread starter Blitzo
- Start date
antiterror13
Brigadier
Yes, likely X-band
I think it's too small and light to be an X-band illuminator which requires high power transmission that in turn requires components that have some weight. To me, it's likely to be a CEC panel, and panels of this size and ratio has been seen in other vessels on top of towers, like the 055, the Shandong, and the Fujian. Similar structures are also seen in the Liaoning as retrofit and the Type 075. However all these are fixed, while this is rotating. You can find similar panels on top of AEGIS destroyers upgraded to Base Level 9. Communication isn't power demanding so the panel isn't as heavy and more convenient for rotation, which has less centrifugal forces.
What these panels allow is for all ships equipped with these to exchange sensor data with each other streaming in real time, allowing for fleet sensor fusion. The whole fleet equipped with these becomes one huge central radar map. This allows one ship to look beyond it's radar horizon through another ship.
You can space a Type 054B then some distance away at the radar horizon limit of these panels to a Type 055 similar panels which in turn is some distance at the radar horizon of the Fujian's CEC panels which are located at it's crown integrated mast. Each of these ships will interchange radar data with the 054B at the outer layer. You can see why this works for fleet defense.
The four bars below the radar on the 054B are IFF. You see similar bars on the Type 052D. They are used to communicate with targets for friend and foe identification.
I do not think target illuminators are used on the ship. The missiles are HQ-16 but they are the new version with active radar guidance. With active radar guidance, their range is now far greater because they are no longer limited by the range of the illuminators, allowing the missiles to fly to their full ballistic potential. The datalink for the missiles may reside within the main radar panel itself, a technology already used on the 052C/D and 055 main radars.
So while it all sounds complicated and radical, it's not. It stands upon proven precedents.
As active missiles, the new HQ-16 is capable of engaging targets beneath the radar horizon. But to get that target data that's not in your ship's radar horizon, you need the radar target data from another ship. Hence the CEC. It all fits altogether.
Seems like a flame deflector is also visible?
antiterror13
Brigadier
Is Alex Luck is a good/reliable analyst in regard to PLA?
Is he a member of this forum ?
Nothing we don't know already
Its for twitter/X and reddit ones
Yes he's about as reliable as Deino, but not so active. He reads SDF but I don't think he posts here.