Earlier was said that they're basically being replaced by 056A, on a 1:1 basis.
056 class FFL/corvette
- Thread starter dingyibvs
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There're just 22 056s anyway...
Really? I thought the idea was at least in part to release crews for new 054As.
MwRYum
Major
The crew of those 056 also transferred to the CSG, but the vacancy in the battle order will be filled by newly built 056A and 054A.
Huh, I did not expect that. Thought the 056A was considered too unsurvivable in a high intensity war with the US.
Yes, I have not seen any evidence or even rumour of further construction of 056A.
056As are meant to hunt and keep USN subs away from the coastline, under PLAN/PLAAF air cover, if they have to go unsupported, toe to toe, against a Burke in open water then some one wasn't doing their job!
They likely won't be considered high priority. Their stealth features, low profile, and small size won't make it easy to show up on radar either. If I were the opponent I would attempt to strike at the high value, high threat targets first; these small ships would be low priority and part of the mop up.
Lack of survivabilty isn't the reason why 056s are being turned over to the Chinese Coast Guard and not the 056A. Its the lack of both TAS and VDS on the 056 that hampers them for effective ASW work compared to the 056A. The 056 seems like a rare mistake for the PLAN. They must have originally planned to build a lot of them, but somewhere in the production, they realized a mistake, and quickly altered as much of the contracts as they can to change the ships for ASW work. However, a number of ships already have their steel cut and cannot be altered. These were allowed to proceed.
With the PLAN wanting to get more ASW frigates, this time on more 054A, its possible the surge in demand for 054A runs into conflict with the CCG's plans to acquire more ships, as both CCG ships and 054A are built using the same shipyards. So they may have internally worked out a solution. Instead of ordering more ships, the CCG gets twenty 056 from the PLAN, and the PLAN gets all the building shipyard slots it needs to make more 054A.
PLAN's new 054A surge means monopolizing Huangpu Wenchong's build slots. However, this denies the CCG from ordering larger ships built in that shipyard like the Type 818 cutter, which is almost like the coast guard version of the 054X hull. So there is a catch there. The CCG will have to find another shipbuilder, and that can mean delays if the new shipyard will go through the teething process of starting and ramping up production of ships that is new to them.
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