PLA Navy news, pics and videos

Iron Man said:

Ah, I understand now. The bugger modified his post after I responded to it but before the 5 minute timestamp. I am not this person, ...

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would some debater "Wolverine", if there's any, be related to
PLAN breaking news, pics, & videos
anyway?? I guess it's off topic stuff and yeah, in hindsight, I shouldn't have posted about hypersonic weapons here LOL

It is only relevant in that he was trying desperately to sidetrack the discussion which up to that point had been about his glaring lack of factual evidence for his personal opinion that RAND (which published the study on hypersonics) was a US government mouthpiece. This slotted in very well with both his general paranoid personality as well his desire to portray the US as being so afraid of China's hypersonics program that it would attempt to sneakily start up a conversation about limiting hypersonics, which is of course not only humorously ludicrous but also betrays a complete lack of understanding of what the RAND report actually recommends, which is that ASSUMING the three countries achieve working hypersonics weapons, they would agree not to PROLIFERATE the technology to other countries. There is no mention of any kind of hypersonics ban or even moratorium on hypersonics research by any of the three countries in question, so even if the US were afraid of Chinese progress in hypersonics, this new hypothetical treaty would do absolutely nothing to stop or even slow down China's hypersonics research.

Super Mod JH: I included these two posts here because I believe they are germane to the discussion here, as ell as the overall PLAN fleet discussion:

latenlazy said:

In the abstract that’s a good point, but in practice force planning can involve many dynamic factors. The type 052Ds we’re seeing completed right now were ordered three years ago, before the 055 design was likely finalized, and a comparable ramp up of 055 production may take another three years yet. The PLAN may be all in on the 055, but if they had a planned fleet size or force capability level to meet in real time they’re not exactly going to hold off production of an older design(that is still very capable) just so they can avoid making more hulls they eventually intend to obsolete later on. Present needs dictate what they build just as much as future plans and, after all, fleet planning works off a rolling schedule. That said, I myself am personally partial to the idea that the intention is to have a 3 tier blue water fleet, but I think there’s enough ambiguity that a good case can be made otherwise. I do think though that we’ll know for sure which way the PLAN is going with intended force force structure if we get new orders of the 052, in either the current D or future E variant. I also think maybe the decision to go with a smaller and less ambitious 054B instead of a larger more ambitious 057 could hint towards their thinking about the future of the 052 type.

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I see the PLAN going 52 and 55 together for awhile yet. Part of it is leads time for the project and procurement decisions made years ago. Once a ramp up in production is started, the momentum is hard to stop. Also, if the navy likes the ships, volume and budget comes into play. Even if 55 is much better, there is a certain need for volume, so the compromise would be 52.

I also still think 55 is not a huge revolution in ship design because they are getting 5 ships essentially at the same time. Which means they are confident in the design or that there is nothing super revolutionary in the design that they need years to debug like the 52C. This would mean possibility the crews for 52 and 55 can be cross trained, gives more flexibility for manpower.

If we do see a larger 54 in a 57 ship between the current 54 and 52 in tonnage, then 52 might stop production soon after.
It is either 56 - 54 - 52 - 55 or 56 - 57 - 55.
57 as a beefed up frigate with 55 a beefed up destroyer would be interesting.

PiSigma said:

I see the PLAN going 52 and 55 together for awhile yet. Part of it is leads time for the project and procurement decisions made years ago. Once a ramp up in production is started, the momentum is hard to stop. Also, if the navy likes the ships, volume and budget comes into play. Even if 55 is much better, there is a certain need for volume, so the compromise would be 52.

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I agree. I see the 52D continuing for a while yet, and the 55 also continuing.

Perhaps as many as 18 Type 52Ds which would allow for six of those per fleet plus the two Type Type 52Cs per fleet as well. Then probably at least 12 Type 55s with four per fleet, or up to eighteen to allow for six per fleet.

Also it depends on how they orgnize the carrier battle groups with respect to the fleets. If they want their escorts to be rotated through but not (at the time they are part of the escort) to be a part of each fleet, you may see an addition two Type 052Ds and one Type 055 per carrier...which would mean another two Type 054A/B per carrier...or the potentil Type 057.

As I say, it will depend on how they organize the crriers with respet to the three fleets.

I believe they might rotate esort dutie through the various escorts, but while they are escorting a CSG, they are on detached duties.

Such an organization would then end up with up to:

6 x Type 055 per fleet
6 x Type 052D per fleet
2 x Type 052C er fleet
10 x Type 054A/B per fleet (up to this number, perhaps 8 per fleet)

Then for the carriers:

1 x Type 055 per carrier
2 x Type 052Ds per carrier
2 x Type 054A/B er carrier.

If we factor in three fleets and four carriers you end up with:

22 x Type 055 DDGs
26 x Type 052D DDGs
06 x Type 052C DDGs
38 x Type 054A/B

This is a total of:

54 DDGs
38 FFGs

A modern surface fleet of 92 vessels in the mid to late 2020 time frame.

PiSigma said:

I also still think 55 is not a huge revolution in ship design because they are getting 5 ships essentially at the same time. Which means they are confident in the design or that there is nothing super revolutionary in the design that they need years to debug like the 52C. This would mean possibility the crews for 52 and 55 can be cross trained, gives more flexibility for manpower.

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Again, I agree with this.

What the Type 55 brings is a deeper well for VLS, and probably the type of fleet/group command facilities within the ship that we see on a US Ticonderoga CG, allowing the Type 55 to operate in a battle-space coordination/control role in a stronger manner than a Type 052D perhaps. Also, as I say, with 112 VLS, she brings much deeper well for VLS missiles for better overall fleet defense.

All in all a very amazing transformation that the PLAN will have made in a 25 year period...absolutely amazing actually.

now noticed in Twitter (don't know how to link that footage here)





Watch the SSF JH-7As laying mines in exercise escorted by J-11BHs.



I guess it's routine for the Chinese, while Apr 5, 2017

Jura said:

hmmmm
Possible future capability Minelaying
Notes An absurd capability gap, but UK has no existing stock of naval mines
April 4, 2017
Restoring the UK’s maritime patrol aircraft capability (Part 2)

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Dong-Feng AShBM?!






Il est possible que la force des fusées chinoise ait procédé à un nouveau tir du missile balistique anti-navire, hier, en baie de Bohai. A confirmer.

Translated from French by
It is possible that the Chinese rockets force conducted a new shot of the ballistic missile anti-ship, yesterday, in the Bay of Bohai. Confirmed.

PLAN Marines conducts another live-fire exercise in Djibouti.

Multiple designs for the floating nuclear reactor project...

Marine Nuclear Power Platform Demonstration Project, Designer: Chinese Shipbuilding Heavy Industries No. 719 Research Institute. Construction is set to commence within five years.




Another interesting design. The placard reads: Submersible Marine Nuclear Power Platform, for rough sea states. No construction timetable has been given.

Continued...

Placard is illegible, but according to

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, this is a nuclear-powered comprehensive naval resupply/support ship.


Nuclear-powered Icebreaker:



Introduction to marine nuclear power platform, with brief project history and advantages and usage scenarios. Nothing too interesting.


Brief intro on No. 719 design institute.

Deleted: wrong threat