055 DDG Large Destroyer Thread

[dvan0]

Any chance that the type 055 will use th qc185? 4 qc280 seems overkill for a ship in the same tonnage class as the zumwalt.

 

[Blitzo]

We know that contract for 10 052D (8 at JN and 2 at DL) have been signed, but the plans are for close to 20 052Ds based on the latest rumours. As we've seen with 054A series, PLAN changes procurement plans once they really start to like a certain ship.

Fair enough, but what is your opinion over what 055 production may eventuate to and especially the 054A successor?

It's pretty much a given that 054B or 057 or whatever it's called is going to come out within the next few years; we see its mast being tested at the wuhan site alongside the carrier and 055 mock ups.

 

[asif iqbal]

Once you start to build warships it's very easy to continue on

However trying to predict a production run is premature and even more so in the case of China

UK planned 12 x Darings then cut to 8 then to finally 6 that were built

So we can never know the true number only how many were initially planned most cases numbers decline and sometimes like in China the numbers increase

I would leave it at that and just follow units as pictures start to appear

 

[tphuang]

Fair enough, but what is your opinion over what 055 production may eventuate to and especially the 054A successor?

It's pretty much a given that 054B or 057 or whatever it's called is going to come out within the next few years; we see its mast being tested at the wuhan site alongside the carrier and 055 mock ups.

I don't know if there is immediate need for a 054A successor, since there are this many 054A in service already. The latter Jiangweis haven't been in service that long. They started with modernizing FACs first with 022, then 054A came along and now 056 came along. 052D is really just getting started. I think it's reasonable to have a pause before successor to 054A joins service even though everyone is expecting a successor in the next few years. I think 055 and 052D are built alongside each other since they will have different roles. Even 4 per fleet would be a lot of 055s imo

 

[joshuatree]

I don't know if there is immediate need for a 054A successor, since there are this many 054A in service already. The latter Jiangweis haven't been in service that long. They started with modernizing FACs first with 022, then 054A came along and now 056 came along. 052D is really just getting started. I think it's reasonable to have a pause before successor to 054A joins service even though everyone is expecting a successor in the next few years. I think 055 and 052D are built alongside each other since they will have different roles. Even 4 per fleet would be a lot of 055s imo

I concur, mockups at testing sites are meant as that, R&D. Doesn't mean something in the near future has to be produced. There are about 14 053H2Gs and 053H3s combined that are relatively young. Infact, the last 053H3, Mianyang, was only commissioned in 2005. Less than 10 years old. And by looking at Chinese shipyards readily building and exporting variants of 056, these 14 units will highly unlikely be resold to other countries. So we should expect these 14 frigates to be faithfully serving PLAN for quite some time. We've seen a few of them performing guard duty at the sites of SCS reclamation. Which means less priority on rolling out a successor 054A. Ramping up production of 052Ds and 055s will take priority. And if there is any truth to rolling out a LHD in the near future, shipyards can be put to work on such projects. Time is also needed for all these new crews to also develop their skills and hone their own set of tradition.

 

[Blitzo]

I don't know if there is immediate need for a 054A successor, since there are this many 054A in service already. The latter Jiangweis haven't been in service that long. They started with modernizing FACs first with 022, then 054A came along and now 056 came along. 052D is really just getting started. I think it's reasonable to have a pause before successor to 054A joins service even though everyone is expecting a successor in the next few years. I think 055 and 052D are built alongside each other since they will have different roles. Even 4 per fleet would be a lot of 055s imo

I see, then do you have an opinion regarding the composition of destroyer flotillas, namely whether frontline DDG and FFG count will increase or only remain the same as now?

 

[dingyibvs]

I concur, mockups at testing sites are meant as that, R&D. Doesn't mean something in the near future has to be produced. There are about 14 053H2Gs and 053H3s combined that are relatively young. Infact, the last 053H3, Mianyang, was only commissioned in 2005. Less than 10 years old. And by looking at Chinese shipyards readily building and exporting variants of 056, these 14 units will highly unlikely be resold to other countries. So we should expect these 14 frigates to be faithfully serving PLAN for quite some time. We've seen a few of them performing guard duty at the sites of SCS reclamation. Which means less priority on rolling out a successor 054A. Ramping up production of 052Ds and 055s will take priority. And if there is any truth to rolling out a LHD in the near future, shipyards can be put to work on such projects. Time is also needed for all these new crews to also develop their skills and hone their own set of tradition.

Don't forget about CVs too, I think most of us would agree that the second CV is likely under construction at this point. This would be quite a workload even for China's 4 gigantic shipyards in JN, HD, DL, and HP, not to mention a substantial budget drain on the PLAN.

 

[antiterror13]

I don't know if there is immediate need for a 054A successor, since there are this many 054A in service already. The latter Jiangweis haven't been in service that long. They started with modernizing FACs first with 022, then 054A came along and now 056 came along. 052D is really just getting started. I think it's reasonable to have a pause before successor to 054A joins service even though everyone is expecting a successor in the next few years. I think 055 and 052D are built alongside each other since they will have different roles. Even 4 per fleet would be a lot of 055s imo

I'd like PLAN to have 4 055s per fleet (so 12 055s ), plus 1 055 for each carrier group

 

[tphuang]

I see, then do you have an opinion regarding the composition of destroyer flotillas, namely whether frontline DDG and FFG count will increase or only remain the same as now?

I'm not sure if my opinion matters here. I think there will be some fleet realignment in the next 10 years with the induction of more strategic platforms. You will end up with 4 naval bases at Qingdao, Zhoushan, Zhanjiang and Sanya. I don't think the number of ships in NSF or ESF need to increase since they are already trapped in there. Sanya would be the one getting most of the ships for blue water fleet. That's where you will likely see increase in number of surface fleet.

 

[PanAsian]

Don't forget about CVs too, I think most of us would agree that the second CV is likely under construction at this point. This would be quite a workload even for China's 4 gigantic shipyards in JN, HD, DL, and HP, not to mention a substantial budget drain on the PLAN.

I think the key word here is budget. If China is really building another CV this time from scratch, possibly a LHD, and probably a pair of 055 to test out the design then it would really be splurging to also be building a 054A successor. I personally doubt that a CV is being built, I think a LHD is more likely so that the PLAN has one of each to practice with. Also with the focus on ASW I anticipate seeing either more new "056A" and "054A+", or upgrades for existing ships to these standards, rather than a 054A successor.