054B/new generation frigate
- Thread starter Blitzo
- Start date
Lets wait until we see some visual confirmation of the +4. For a process like 052C it is way too fast.
I'm starting to think that the frigates and light frigates may just stay with the hq-16 launchers because there really isn't anything that the uvls will added to these ship's primary role. I personally think quad pack of possibly longer range boosted hq-10s would beneficial. I believe i read that there is only a 5-10 second window for the hq-10 10km max range against a sonic missle... would be nice to have some more reaction time.
Well, 052C was....beyond the edge quality combatant for 2000s China, it could simply not be working for many years.
We don't know what's inside 054B, but by appearence it isn't exactly out of the world.
Sometimes things just work.
Sometimes international environment doesn't really support waiting deployment and evaluation.
054A is not outdated(in a sense that it keeps combat value), but it's a very mediocre capability level at this point of time. It may be seen as insufficient even for non-battlefleet combatant, and PLAN is rushing introduction of state of the art units.
For non-CSG/SAG operations it is more than adequate, since all you're looking out for in those cases is pirates and in wartime, enemy subs and the occasional small surface combatant in the role of coastal water defense and convoy escort. I think in the future this is exactly what the 054A will be relegated to as more and more 054Bs join the PLAN to fulfill the frigate role for CSG and SAG operations.
...stealth aircraft(from f-35 to soon to come b-21), new generation cruise missiles (from Vietnam to Philippine based MLRs to Japan to Taiwan, or whomever who can be in conflict in the next 50 years really), ballistic missiles, drones of all kinds.
F-35B with LRASM was shown just yesterday, for example.
Even if right around today afternoon there will be fake flag incident in Red sea with Chinese vessel (or genuine mistake, or plot, whatever) - Houthi weapons include dissimilar salvoes with TBMs inside.
China doesn't live deep in an insulated co-prosperity sphere, with Malay barrier firmly occupied and global east-west traffic non-existent. And the last one didn't exactly prevent all kinds of escort activity.
Chinese traffic goes all around the world, Chinese crucial traffic stretches at very least to the gulf area (which is boiling at an edge).
054A as a ship can't be expected to reliably process simple benchmark attacks - it's a ship relying mostly on a single 382 (i.e. top plate), without proper CMS. I.e. for all intents, it's a 1980s capability level, just with higher rate of fire.
Much less big model threats, it isn't all that inconceivable for such a ship to get surprised by a handful of light ASCMs; yes, with a good crew and when fully ready they can make it. They may be not.
It certainly isn't inconceivable for it to miss the same ASCM when it's attacking other, escorted, ship at some distance away.
But if you get those 054As even a single modern dual band flagship - they'll become massively better. They just need this warning/information support
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054B FFG #555 Qinzhou has entered service with the PLAN. Posted by @xx笑而不语xx on Weibo.
Is there a role for a 'frigate leader' or 'heavy frigate' in the PLAN today? To lead and datalink 054A? Or would that be the role of destroyers?
In the interwar period and beyond, there were 'destroyer leaders' and 'flotilla leaders.'
The 'flotilla leaders' had greater room for staff and communications, to co-ordinate the smaller warships. I suppose PLAN has many 052 and larger vessels to fulfill that role.