asif iqbal
Lieutenant General
if they can add a dual hanger with Type 054B with 2 x Z9C that would be good
054B/new generation frigate
- Thread starter Blitzo
- Start date
Would they even need a dual hangar for 2 Z-9C? It's a pretty small helicopter so a large hangar could maybe fit two. For example, T45 can house 1 Merlin but 2 Wildcat's in the same space. Wouldn't 1 Z-20 be better than 2 Z-9C=
I wonder about the possibility of using UVLS with the current type 054A hull if 054B's hull were to stay the same dimensions. Now that it seems at least the hull cross-section dimensions seem roughly the same and Redshark said sth about it being the same too. Perhaps it would require a bit of lengthening of the hull? Or perhaps PLAN would consider it sufficient to just arm them with AJK-16s.
What if 054B were to be a hybrid vls? 4 HHQ9 wont hurt, rest can still be HQ16. It wont be sufficient to rely on it but 4 HHQ9 can exert a bit of extra pressure on high value targets like aircraft. It will be a great addition for nations cannot afford full sized destroyers.
Its possible but not the way people would think about it. They would think that the ship would leave out the VLS hole for the AJK-16, and somehow, manage to expand it and the bottom so you can lower a U-VLS set into it. That's not how it works.
Think of a ship like a sausage. Then cut it in sections. The portion with the VLS has its own complete section. What you do is to make an entirely new section with the U-VLS, and substitute the old section with the AJK-16. Naturally that has to be done during the ship construction before everything is welded together. These new sections can be made longer but you have to conform with the beam dimensions.
This can be done or already has been done with the 052C/D and the 055, and if they want to increase the number of VLS in those ships, they can substitute a new section with the revised VLS array for the old one before the ship is welded together.
HHQ-9B appears to require a much more powerful radar set, otherwise the HHQ-9B would be limited in range to what the ship's fire control radar would be.
Realize that for example, a radar that advertises a maximum of 400km for its volume air search, does not mean that its range for its fire control mode would be that. Fire control modes tend to operate with higher PRF and frequencies, and that leads to shorter ranges.
So let's assume the ship uses the dual faced AESA (Type 383?). Let's give it a hypothetical guesstimate for 400km for its maximum search range. Its range for engagement and high quality tracking would be much shorter and is unknown. We don't know if the radar can produce a high quality track at 300km in the same way the fixed Type 346A arrays on the 052D does, which is still much bigger, has much more elements and greater power.
So I will leave out the HHQ-9B being supported by the Type 383 to its maximum potential a lump sized question mark. For what we have seen on the Test Ship 892, the dual faced AESA is seen along with the new AESA target illuminators used for the HHQ-16, which strongly suggest they are meant to work together and that both would appear in the final ship.
If we are to see U-VLS on the 054B, it is far more likely this will be the 9 meter type. Instead of HHQ-9s, the U-VLS is for YJ-18s. The SAM would still be HHQ-16s on the AJK-16 or a shortened U-VLS.
This is possible, and when we see ships with dual VLS, such as the Admiral Gorshkov and Grigorovich classes, the big VLS is for antiship missiles and cruise missiles, with the smaller VLS for SAM defense.
You can design the new section to account for that, and modify the older sections in the design phase to compensate for the weight distribution.
This is exactly how they lengthened the rear of the 052D for the "DL" variant. You have a new aft hanger section that not only is longer, but has a redesigned hanger spine for the new SATCOM locations.
Thank you, I am aware of that. Widening the hull to 18m will make it completely different from 054A. This is not just adding a section in 052D. And the displacement is going way closer to 052D than 054A, also accounting for heavier powerplant.
