055 DDG Large Destroyer Thread
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The upcoming type 055A ddg. The type 055 should have 128 silos to begin with. Somehow they decided against it, for some strange reasons.
We know little about 055A.
We also don't have any reason to have "expected" 055 to have 128 VLS cells -- some of us hoped 055 would have 128 cells so it could match a Sejong or a Tico, or because it seemed like a logical number (double that of an 052D, a nice round number).
But there was never a reason to think 128 VLS cells was ever a PLA requirement.
Brumby
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If only the problem and solution is so simple as expressed in salvo.
The debate between sub sonic and supersonic ingress has always been between stealth vs speed as a means to target. Supersonic ingress has a higher degree of detection due to flight profile, RCS and IR signature. The USN has decided on a pathway through stealth. It is challenging to pick out a VLO sea skimmer especially against sea clutter in high sea states. A salvo conversation is pointless when you can't detect a target.
Additionally, modern ASMs like the LRASM and NSM are designed to conduct evasive maneuvers against interception. All missile intercept principles are designed around line of sight (LOS); pursuit guidance (PG); or proportional navigation (PN) theories. Their probability of kills are vulnerable to incoming missile maneuvers.
Source : Page 41, Modern Missile Guidance by Rafael Yanushevsky
If LRASM is so effective, why hasn't China bothered to build an equivalent?
They have the same test data on subsonic stealth missile effectiveness. Plus building these should be easy when compared to building a stealth aircraft.
Instead, Chinese missiles have gone with speed rather than stealth.
Plus there's a old post where a US admiral is quoted as saying medium range SAMs are really effective. You can also track missiles by Infrared or Electro-optical at those ranges. Radar detection of a stealth module should still be possible at the radar horizon.
And remember that SAMs are designed to shoot down aircraft performing high G maneurvres as well.
US was working on its own supersonic antiship missile in secret. Have you heard of Sea Dragon?
Being able to conduct evasive maneuvers is not province of exclusively of 'modern' and subsonic antiship missiles. Allegedly Granit, Moskit, Oniks, Brahmos and Klub are capable of it too. I won't rule out YJ-12 and YJ-18 being capable of terminal maneuver too, and I won't rule out YJ-62 and YJ-83 either.
I also heard from Chinese forum goers about something called 'adaptive sea skimming' being used by the YJ-18, but I am not sure exactly what it is.
YJ-18, like the Klub, is a missile taking the best of both worlds. It travels much of the distance in subsonic, low height mode, approaches target sea skimming, drops off the cruise missile stage, sending a second stage solid rocket missile that goes supersonic up to Mach 3 in terminal phase, while maneuvering.
A defending system could maybe counter maneuvering missiles by motion or track prediction, where the computer is calculating the patch the missile will take. It may need to look for a predictable sequence or pattern in the S shaped weaving, for example, although once again, the missile may counter by having a more random looking like weaving pattern.
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It might be too early to say they have not. Who knows if they are not working one of their own.
That's not completely true. You still have the YJ-83 and YJ-62 missiles which are subsonic, and the YJ-100 might be a successor to these missiles along these lines. The YJ-18 is mostly a subsonic low flying missile mostly in its flight, going supersonic in terminal stage only.
Sorry Deino. This will be the last I will say of this. It needs to be cleared up before we move on. These missiles are also an important part of the 055's armament with the YJ-18 in particular, and the YJ-100 being a hypothetical.
It's not too early to say.
China has the most active anti-ship missile programme in the world, and fields a large variety of anti-ship missiles that no other country has attempted.
The subsonic YJ-83 and YJ-62 missiles are small, low-weight, low-cost, short-ranged missiles.
They are mostly deployed from aircraft and presumably submarines, which physically cannot accommodate larger missiles.
They are also used on Chinese 2nd tier warships like frigates and corvettes.
Note that they are not used on Type-52D or Type-55 Destroyers which have been designed for a high-intensity conflict against a peer-opponent.
And as you say yourself, the Type-55 has the YJ-18, which goes supersonic at the terminal stage, once it reaches the radar horizon of a ship with a capable air defence system.
The subsonic missile body is just a delivery platform, which delivers the supersonic missile warhead.
This supports my point that the Chinese Navy emphasises missile speed over stealth.
We can also see that the Russian-Indian Brahmos has gone for speed with the Brahmos antiship missile.
Japan is also developing the XASM-3 antiship missile, which again emphasises speed.
EDIT: The other point to note is that eventually a stealthy missile will be detected. But when it is detected at such close range, you don't need large, fast expensive SAMs anymore. Then you can launch a lot more cheaper, shorter range, lower-performance SAMs instead, which are still much faster (and therefore effective) against a subsonic missile. But those defending SAMs would struggle against supersonic/hypersonic missiles which can travel faster than the SAM.
So if stealthy missiles are so effective, why are China, Japan, India and Russia all developing fast missiles instead of stealthy missiles?
Anyway, that's all I have to say on the matter.
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