antiterror13
Brigadier
36? woooow ... interesting to see at what point 056/A build will end ? perhaps 60 ?
36th Corvette Type 056 Admitted to Active Service
Exactly one month after another building of the same class, the Chinese Navy has again admitted to active duty a corvette Type 056, the 36th since March 2013.
The anti-submarine variant corvette (known as Type 056A) receives the hull number 552, and bears the same name as Guangyuan (广 元), a thousand-year-old city of nearly three million inhabitants in the northern part of the province. from Sichuan.
The details of this new admission to active service are almost kept secret. The only newspaper article, published on the Weixin account of a local media in Guangyuan, finally only stayed a few hours online before being removed.
It is reported, however, that the ceremony took place on November 16 and that the Type 056 corvette is attached to the 18th frigate flotilla under the new Guangzhou Naval Base Organization. The crew has been trained since 18 August 2016 on Hainan Island, just over two months before the launch of the building at Huangpu Shipyard.
After less than a year of layout and testing, the anti-submarine corvette successfully passed the acceptance process in September 2017, before officially joining the southern fleet yesterday.
It should be noted that 552 Guangyuan is the 14th warship that the Chinese navy introduced in 2017, excluding, of course, auxiliary ships and submarines of all kinds.
Like the other Type 056 corvettes, the vessel is 88.9 meters long, 11.14 meters long and displaces 1,340 tons full load. He is the 12th class built at the Huangpu shipyard of the CSSC group.
Equipped with a dedicated combat suite, ASROC missiles, anti-submarine grenades, light torpedoes and towed sonar, it is also the 15th Corvette Type 056A that joined the ranks of the Chinese Navy.
The local press article also revealed several interesting elements about this class of corvette, such as the fact that it is built for combat missions located within 200 nautical miles of the coast, with a range of 15 days and a distance passable over 2,000 nautical miles.
These data therefore suggest that the Type 056 corvettes and the ASW Type 056A variant were designed primarily for patrol, escort and protection of maritime interests in the exclusive economic zones of China. It also frees 4,000-ton frigates and 6,000-ton destroyers for other high-altitude or higher-intensity missions.
Note also that all the Type 056 corvettes admitted to active service in 2017, that is to say six so far, are of the version dedicated to anti-submarine warfare. Of the 36 class corvettes already admitted to active service by the Chinese navy since 2013, 21 are of normal version and 15 of Type 056A.
According to our estimate, the Chinese Navy could still admit four more Type 056A before the end of the year. These are 535 Xuancheng, 540 Zhangye, 557 Liaocheng and 554 Deyang.
36? woooow ... interesting to see at what point 056/A build will end ? perhaps 60 ?
My guess would be a higher number...either of the Type 56 or an improved design.According to Henri K the rumours say 60 will be built.
What I find interesting is that the chinese wikipedia only lists 2 new hulls launched in 2017, when in the past 6 to 10 hulls were launched every year.
It might be a sign of a slow down in building or just a matter of timing (8 hulls were launched in the second half of 2016) or reporting.
They need them to replace the many, many older litoral vessels they have had in operation.
This is true...but Coast Guard vessels do not normally conduct ASW and the long coast line and the opposing nations lend themselves to utilizing the coastline. There have literally been hundreds of the smaller gun and missile boats patrolling the littorals of China over they last decades and it is clear that many will not be built...but replacing them with 80 or even 100 is not coming anywhere close to a one for one trade off, but would allow for the more capable vessels to cover the ground adequately. I am not sure 60 will.I'm not sure that all the old boats will need to be replaced by navy vessels.
Due to geography China will always have more litoral vessels to defend its coast than some other countries, but a rapidly growing coast guard should take over the "policing" duties and the growing capability of the navy (and air force) should lead any naval engagements to occur farther from the coast.
As well they should.Here is the translation from Henri K blog. Now there are more type 56A anti sub version than OPV version. I like to see they navalized the larger version of AW UAH for organic air surveillance
Chinese Navy Admits Active 37th Corvette Type 056
After accepting active duty on her 36th Type 056 corvette less than two weeks ago in southern China, the Chinese navy re-entered yesterday's same-class ship.
It should be noted that the Type 056A directed towards anti-submarine warfare is taking an increasingly important role in the three Chinese fleets. The arrival of 551 Suining to the Southern Fleet means that there are now more ASW corvettes than those in the standard version, and the trend is expected to increase further. One of the reasons for this is that the South China Sea, the main allocation area of the Southern fleet, is particularly conducive to submarine activities.
As for the Northern Fleet and the Eastern Fleet, which deal respectively with the East China Sea and the Strait of Formosa for one, and Bohai Bay as well as the Yellow Sea for the other, the Higher-tonnage first-class ships and surface-fighting-oriented corvettes are still favored, although more and more Type 056A should be coming in the coming months, as most new hulls under construction appear be anti-submarine version.
Henri K.