056 class FFL/corvette

Ok I know I've sit on this for 2 weeks but I was busy at work, the company secretary was clearing her backlogged annual leave so everyone have to pull extra hours...

Back to the point: July 1st was the annual open house, I managed to get ticket this time so naturally I went there. While the 056s assigned are still what they are, but I observed some minor improvements made:



Those grills on the sides were add-on improvement features. According to the navy personnel on-site, those are in response to experience of operating in high sea states - water would ingest into the ship from those gaps on the side of the panel and into the mashed exhaust / intake beneath. the added grills would prevent that, allowing improved endurance and can operate deeper into the South China Sea when called upon.

Below shouldn't be anything fancy or hi-tech, though I think you might like to see what an offical PLAN inflatable liferaft capsule looks like...yeah, the kind that get people excited when they see new aircraft carrier is loading them up...

China doesn't need a successor to the Type 056 and Type 054A. There are more than enough of these ships to perform whatever brown or green water tasks the PLAN have in mind. They should instead focus on the Type 055 and the Type 052D blue water assets instead. China should also get rid of of all the Type 037's. With better integration of China's coast guard into the armed forces under the control of the CMC. China needs fewer smaller ships and boats in the navy.

Does anyone know how many type 037's there are still left ?

MwRYum said:

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Those grills on the sides were add-on improvement features. According to the navy personnel on-site, those are in response to experience of operating in high sea states - water would ingest into the ship from those gaps on the side of the panel and into the mashed exhaust / intake beneath. the added grills would prevent that, allowing improved endurance and can operate deeper into the South China Sea when called upon.

Click to expand...

Those remind me of certain panels on the 055.....

Franklin said:

China doesn't need a successor to the Type 056 and Type 054A. There are more than enough of these ships to perform whatever brown or green water tasks the PLAN have in mind. They should instead focus on the Type 055 and the Type 052D blue water assets instead. China should also get rid of of all the Type 037's. With better integration of China's coast guard into the armed forces under the control of the CMC. China needs fewer smaller ships and boats in the navy.

Click to expand...

And yet it is definitively confirmed that China has a successor to the Type 054A, clearly not as a replacement for the 054A but to continue the expansion of PLAN frigate numbers and capabilities. A second hangar and perhaps improved radar systems (such as a 4-panel or rotating AESA) would be totally reasonable improvements to expect from the "054B".

MwRYum said:

Ok I know I've sit on this for 2 weeks but I was busy at work, the company secretary was clearing her backlogged annual leave so everyone have to pull extra hours...

Back to the point: July 1st was the annual open house, I managed to get ticket this time so naturally I went there. While the 056s assigned are still what they are, but I observed some minor improvements made:

View attachment 47929 View attachment 47930 View attachment 47931

Those grills on the sides were add-on improvement features. According to the navy personnel on-site, those are in response to experience of operating in high sea states - water would ingest into the ship from those gaps on the side of the panel and into the mashed exhaust / intake beneath. the added grills would prevent that, allowing improved endurance and can operate deeper into the South China Sea when called upon.

Below shouldn't be anything fancy or hi-tech, though I think you might like to see what an offical PLAN inflatable liferaft capsule looks like...yeah, the kind that get people excited when they see new aircraft carrier is loading them up...
View attachment 47932 View attachment 47933 View attachment 47934

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Interesting that they would also use English on their life raft capsules.

joshuatree said:

Interesting that they would also use English on their life raft capsules.

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For SOLAS compliance perhaps?

Franklin said:

China doesn't need a successor to the Type 056 and Type 054A. There are more than enough of these ships to perform whatever brown or green water tasks the PLAN have in mind. They should instead focus on the Type 055 and the Type 052D blue water assets instead. China should also get rid of of all the Type 037's. With better integration of China's coast guard into the armed forces under the control of the CMC. China needs fewer smaller ships and boats in the navy.

Does anyone know how many type 037's there are still left ?

Click to expand...

Type 056 series only recently entered service (1st batch entered service in 2013) and as replacement to the long obsolete Type 037 series boats, so it's a "current generation" design; given today's hull design can last a long time until totally new technologies available, Type 056 series should be with us for at least a few decades more and still relevant if sufficient upgrades are rendered in due course. It is designed for littoral water operations. That said, we're a few decades too early to talk about its replacement anyway.

Type 054A FFG is the mainstay and clearly the PLAN still has a shortfall of modern FFGs - even after the retirement of all pre-054 series FFGs, the expanded mission scope of the PLAN require more FFGs to expand its fleet. Rumours said a new Flight already in production but nothing is certain until evidence otherwise. What will "054B" be is yet to be seen.

Franklin said:

China doesn't need a successor to the Type 056 and Type 054A. There are more than enough of these ships to perform whatever brown or green water tasks the PLAN have in mind.

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I think 054As have demonstrated themselves to be viable for blue water tasks as well. Having a medium frigate design of the 4k+ ton weight I think is good for the medium intensity to low intensity blue water mission as well as for blue water high intensity ASW when operating as part of a larger task force. We have very credible rumours that under 24 054Bs have been ordered, so it seems like the PLAN at any rate still sees a big role.

As for 056s -- they are definitely limited to green water missions, but I don't know why you think there are "more than enough" of 056s for the green water mission. We don't know what kind of patrol presence the PLAN is aiming to achieve in its immediate periphery, which is in particularly useful for the ASW mission in the case of 056As and 054As (or the "054A+s" for those who identify them) with augmented ASW suites by having VDS.

They should instead focus on the Type 055 and the Type 052D blue water assets instead. China should also get rid of of all the Type 037's. With better integration of China's coast guard into the armed forces under the control of the CMC. China needs fewer smaller ships and boats in the navy.

Does anyone know how many type 037's there are still left ?

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Getting rid of the 037s make sense as they are obsolete for the green water patrol role considering 056s can do the mission far better, and 022s can do the short range missile boat mission better.

However I can see the PLAN still wanting to continue production of 056s, especially the A variant. The number often thrown around is 60 total 056s, but I can see them going over that number as well, or developing a slightly larger ship for the mission.


I suppose a better question might be what do you think the Navy's production rate and long term number for 055s and 052Ds should be, versus how many frigates and corvettes they should have?
It is also worth mentioning that some of the shipyards that build frigates and corvettes are probably not suited to build destroyers anyway, so it's not like there are missed destroyer "slots" for the shipyards churning out frigates and especially corvettes.

joshuatree said:

Interesting that they would also use English on their life raft capsules.

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Probably because Bangladesh and Nigeria also use the Type056. There are also crew exchanges with other countries and this lifeboat appears on a number of ships. So English on there is a must.

A collage of 056's subsystems in operation. Note the use of the raft launching system for rescue (lower right panel).

(2048 x 1498)

now noticed the tweet





Comme des saucisses...

Translated from French by
Like sausage...