It hasn't been "so long".
055 DDG Large Destroyer Thread
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It hasn't been "so long".
At some point in the recent past, the way the PLAN does its trials and commissioning has changed.
1.) Basic sea trials conducted by the shipyard. Once this is done, the ship is moved to her naval port, but still not commissioned. I suppose its likely the shipyard gets paid at this point.
2.) Once the ship is in the naval base, the ship undergoes advance trials conducted with the personnel of the base and the division the ship is destined to belong to. This is where all the weapons firing trials, and putting the ship in paces similar to actual drills and exercises. This can take as long as it can.
3.) Once the PLAN is satisfied and the ship is ready, the ship goes back to the shipyard for one final run over. She gets cleaned up, painted, and her pennant painted on the ship.
No. 2 Type 055 has been in phase 2 for a while, currently stationed in Qingdao.
That is a good question. Compared to Type 052D, it has 4 instead of 2 GTs, with 2 per screw.
According to this Chinese infographic, the two engine rooms are separated by one (small) compartment that houses the clutching gear. There are large openings visible in that compartment towards the engine rooms, which could be a weakness in case of underwater damage or flooding. A Mk48 heavyweight torpedo detonation amidships is likely to damage all three compartmens which could leave the ship dead in the water, since it doesn’t have IEPS whereby it could engage the much further apart located electrical generators.
This amount of separation in main engine rooms is roughly similar to the smaller DDG-51, but less than Ticos which have two compartments between the MERs.
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Why "too bad"?
The naming for the very first ship of a type especially a mile-stone like type 055 certainly carries huge political and traditional significance. I have no favor of regionalism or pride, but there is simply no city or place that can compete in political significance with cities or places like Nangchang, Jinggangshan, Yanan etc. After 101 though, it will be totally procedural as new ship got name vacated by decommissioned old ship.actually, if history in China ever becomes more objective and less hagiographic of the current ruling party, then the first Anshan would be seen as a huge ambarassment. That Anshan was an rather inadaquate attempt by the Soviets to produce a early 1930 standard destroyer during the late 1930s. it was hard used and worn out by end of WWII. The Soviets then hoodwinked the new government in China into paying 15 metric tons of gold for the essentially obsolete, worn out destroyer that wasn’t very good when new, and was totally unmodernized even by pervailing standard of end of WWII. It had no sonar, crude radar, no radar fire control, no remote power control For any weapons, inadequate AA, At very in efficient engines.
The value of 15 metric tons of gold at the time was about 20 million US dollars. At the time the latest Fleet destroyer at the end of WWII cost between 6 -10 million USD to build.
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Um no.. Gnevny class destroyers was a class of 29 destroyers. While it was hardly perfect and had many flaws, you don't build a class of 29 destroyers and call it a failure. These ships could steam up to 38 knots, although due to QC issues, some of these ships don't reach the 38 knots. 38 knots is faster than you see with any destroyer around. These ships goes back to an Italian destroyer heritage, and the Italians love fast ships.
With regards to sensors, much of WW2 destroyers don't have anything like advanced sensors. But for a WW2 destroyer, the Gnevny class can be considered heavily armed. Ballistically, the main gun punches harder than any other gun of its type in WW2. As for AA armament, ships tend to add guns during their service aside from the standard armament given which was inadequete at the start, still the class was able to fend itself against German air attacks. I won't call WW2 levels of construction, or even by the late thirties to be high in QC, much of the record of ships like these --- the Gnevny class should be considered average, not the best, not the worst --- comes from the people who manned and maintained the ships rather than the excellence of design.
Some of these destroyers are considered war heroes by the Soviet Union, most notably the Gremyaschy which escorted and fought back German attacks on Lend Lease convoys to the Soviet Union. Here is her war record, and she was also put on a stamp. You can that much of the class served in WW2 protecting convoys in assistance to the Allies. This ship even earned a stamp, and today, a modern ship is named after her.
The most modern ship in the Russian Navy so happens to be her namesake. The Russian Navy doesn't pick its names lightly.
15 tons of gold just happen to buy four destroyers. Admittedly, the SU did come off like a thief with four obsolete destroyers for 15 tons of gold but China did help secure technical cooperation with the Soviet Union that also brought a lot of other things to China which would later be the H-6 bomber for example, or the blueprints of a Soviet destroyer that would later be the foundation of the Type 051 class for the PLAN.
The ship that was to be the Anshan, the Rekordny, was built in the Russian Far East. However much of the conflict was on the other side of the Soviet Union, so the Pacific Fleet didn't see any action. I won't consider the ship hard used, more like hardly used.
Much of these class continue to see service until the late fifties --- so during the time the SU sold these ships to China, the class was still active with the Soviet Union. You are still talking about a healthy span of over twenty years of service. The Chinese ships were still in service in the seventies, right up to the eighties, so that's a long record of service. By then the ships were heavily modified with radar, missiles and etc,. So overall, the class served from the late thirties for the first ship to hoist its flag up right up to the late eighties when the last ship hoisted its flag down. That's still a remarkable record of service.
Anshan and Gremyaschy as recreated in a wargame. As the visual representations are based on researched archival and historical records as well as museum ships, at the time the Rekordny was handed over to the PLA, the ship to be the Anshan has more radar fittings than what the earlier state of the class was.
Of the four original destroyers of the PLAN, Anshan, Fushun, Changchun and Taiyuan, Changchun and Taiyuan has already returned as destroyers, a 052C and a 052D respectively. It would be neat to see Anshan and Fushun return as destroyer names.
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