Chinese Naval Export: News, Views, Pics & Videos
- Thread starter philbob
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The type 071E HTMS Chang LPD 792 seems to be a pretty big deal for the Thai Navy. The king & queen came in person to offer royal blessings and formally commission the ship in an elaborate ceremony involving heads of the navy and hundreds of sailors & civilians, complete with a 21 naval gun salute.
Perhaps she could one day take over flag ship duties from the Chakri Naruebet. She displaces twice as much (25,000T vs ~12,000T fully loaded), has amenities for 6-800 troops, and could in theory carry the same standard complement of six SH-60s as the Chakri (2x2 in the hanger with folded tail booms + 2 on deck).
And infinitely more useful in peacetime operations e.g humanitarian disasters as well as not being a dockyard queen like the Chakri Naruebet.
That being said, is she ever going to get her CIWS and 76mm cannon? I heard it wasn't installed due to lack of funds.
It's probably the single most useful multipurpose ship in the Thai navy. In fact they included SAR in one of their first public exercises with the ship by , landing on the Chang and carrying the patient by stretcher to the ship's medical facility. On top of amphibious ops and peacetime SAR / emergency response, they also plan to use the ship as a submarine tender.
The gun deck is barren so obviously no 76mm, but some smaller caliber autocannon / CIWS systems may have been installed. Here's a screencap from a video of a replenishment exercises from the Chang; you can see in the top left corner what's likely a 20mm autocannon on the intermediate deck directly below the bridge. There are .50cal manned weapon stations scattered around the ship which are likely to have been installed as well. The 76mm was included in all public materials as one of the weapons systems for the ship (including on the king's visit), so it will likely get installed eventually.
That means the deal of S26T SSK for the RTN is pretty much dead in the water. Does the RTN choose to procure an FFG as replacement (as previously mentioned), or did they just cancelled the order altogether?
In the meantime - Only one 052D(E?) DDG seems like too few for a country with thousands of islands and spanning pretty much the entire width of CONUS. On the flipside, given that the TNIAL has only 2 modified variant of the Type 31 FFGs planned (which will be their largest surface combatants), such offer does seem apt.
However, I do find it somewhat less optimistic for such deal offer to the TNIAL to go through, given how the Indonesian armed forces are still predominantly Western-leaning when it comes to procurement. On the other hand, I do believe that countries such as Bangladesh and (especially) Pakistan would be more open to such offer for a S26T (and more so with a 052D(E?) as a bonus).
(For Pakistani Navy's case - It should be a welcoming move to add another brand new member to its submarine fleet, whereas the sole Perry FFG that has been in service since 1979 can be replaced with the sole 052D(E?).)
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052D export version spec
by78
General
These have already been shared almost two years ago.