056 class FFL/corvette

^ China is not the US or Russia. What's suitable to for them may not be for China. IMO PLAN should not simply copy USN...and there's clear evidence that they're not. Generals in PLA have worked out what China needs and is building the assets for those needs.

Patrols in Gulf of Aden is close to real wartime assignments as it's going to get, short of actually going to war. It is these patrols that made the higher eschelons of PLA realise how valuable a blue water surface fleet can be, politically and militarily. I suspect this is part of the reason why we're seeing more surface combatants being built recently than submarines.

China needs to ensure her coast and the surrounding sea area is secure before moving for blue water expansion. I think in this regards type 054, 056 are quite handy and economical.

not sure where Type 56 is going to fit in? what can it do that Type 54A cant, China already has lots of ships for coastal patrol why design a new one? also production run for Type54A is relentless

if anything i would have thought China needs more ships larger than Type 054A not smaller

but this could be a very good export potential

China has lots of outdated ships to replace, not just the frigate and destroyers but corvettes as well.

The 056 would also be a lot cheaper, so for patrol mission, 056 can take over the role from 054A and saves a lot of cost.

asif iqbal said:

not sure where Type 56 is going to fit in? what can it do that Type 54A cant, China already has lots of ships for coastal patrol why design a new one? also production run for Type54A is relentless

if anything i would have thought China needs more ships larger than Type 054A not smaller

but this could be a very good export potential

Click to expand...

They do have something in the size suggested for Type 056 that was offered for export, but that one's layout does not look like the Type 056 model we saw. You can find it on the CDF blog.

tphuang said:

They do have something in the size suggested for Type 056 that was offered for export, but that one's layout does not look like the Type 056 model we saw. You can find it on the CDF blog.

Click to expand...

asif iqbal said:

Re: Type 056 OPV/Corvette

not sure where Type 56 is going to fit in? what can it do that Type 54A cant, China already has lots of ships for coastal patrol why design a new one? also production run for Type54A is relentless

if anything i would have thought China needs more ships larger than Type 054A not smaller

but this could be a very good export potential
.

Click to expand...

1) I believe 056 is designed to use civil ship specs.
2) alot more shipyards can build them (remember those ubiqitous 037 class corvettes?)
3) China has 2 sets of unique challenges, much of its northern coast is bottled in by other countries. so it needs patrol corvettes just to economically serve as screening and ASW patrol fleet. similar to baltic sea countries.
But it also looking at some serious power projection requirements in the future, i.e. protecting its sea lane of communication, requiring large surface combatants.

How expensive or cheap is type 056 corvette ? US$75M ?

I look forward to seeing what the range of this corvette will be. No hanger and no apparent sonar suggests the Type 056 is a peacetime sea control corvette. I find that odd though, because most peacetime sea control missions China is concerned about would be better done by maritime law enforcement like the rapidly expanding coast guard.

Will be interesting to see what they do with this platform, and how many they decide to build.

¦^ÂÃ: Re: Type 056 OPV/Corvette

Galrahn said:

I look forward to seeing what the range of this corvette will be. No hanger and no apparent sonar suggests the Type 056 is a peacetime sea control corvette. I find that odd though, because most peacetime sea control missions China is concerned about would be better done by maritime law enforcement like the rapidly expanding coast guard.

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If you read back to page 3 you will see both myself and franco-rousse making precisely that point, but thank you for repeating it.