Now this what we all been waiting for....:china: :china: :nana:
There's clearly 16 VLS silos. Thats a fact. It reminds somewhat similar to the Rif launchers in Kirov class cruisers, but the hathces are too close together that there could be a rotary launcher bellow them. So there is 90% 16 missiles onboard. What are those missiles? Well only thing is 100 % certain and that is that they are SAMs. No ship of this class (not even chinese ships any longer) goes to sea without SAM cover.
Then what SAM system is onboard? My quess is HHQ-16 which is chinese derivation (wheter just chinese VLS for Shtill or completely chinese missile, that I don't know) from the SA-N-12 missile. All the factors speak behalf of it. The missile guidance radar set is derivation of the Fregat/Orekh suite. Basicly if you have a football field, you most likely are going to play football in it, not basket ball...
???? It's not angled, at least not that much that it would hide another set of 2x8 VLS...
If there is only 16 missilesilos, then there will only be SAMs onboard those VLS. 16 is about the minium of SAMs that is fitted in modern warships today and any number less than that (and itself seems too low to me) is a serious default.
It's the Type 347G, chinese copy of the Italian DARDO CIWS system. It's normally associated to the Type 76A and it's also intergrated to the tpye 730 CIWS system. Apparently its been set to controll the 76 mm maingun. In the 054 there where the type 344 gun control...
