PLAN Carrier Strike Group and Airwing

Re: The PICs every PLAN enthusiast is waiting for

kroko said:

SEMT pielstick was acquired by MAN, and its now part of MAN (which is a german company). And where have you read that china cant get or license-built naval engines from europe?

What about varyag?

Click to expand...

All the move points of Ukraine, for if China can get what they want from Europe, they'd have done that already.

Re: The PICs every PLAN enthusiast is waiting for

MwRYum said:

All the move points of Ukraine, for if China can get what they want from Europe, they'd have done that already.

Click to expand...

And they have been getting from europe: engines for 054 and type 071

Re: The PICs every PLAN enthusiast is waiting for

May types of large diesel engines are nowadays built in China because much of the worlds ship building takes place there. Man and SEMT Pielstick are building engines there for the last ten? years. Wartesila Sulzer is now closing a plant in the Netherlands to open one in China.

Re: The PICs every PLAN enthusiast is waiting for

New Toys On 892

Re: The PICs every PLAN enthusiast is waiting for

A.Man,

Excellent photos! It is a shame they are not higher resolution but they make the point. I am not 100% sure what the roles of the new radars are, I am guessing that the single array radar on top of the main mast is a primary tracking radar- possibly a Sea Eagle replacement. As for the twin array contraption, I dont recall having ever seen anything like it before in any other navy and am at a loss as to what it could be for. Its position on top of the bridge is even more curious. However, the array itself seems to be quite large compared to 892 so perhaps it is some sort of volume search radar.

Is it just me, or does it seem like in neither of those pictures is 892 carrying both of the new radars simultaneously? Unless on the last picture the radar arrays of the contraption mounted above the bridge have been laid horizontally before it was covered in a sheet.

Re: The PICs every PLAN enthusiast is waiting for

The radar in question is HK-CL43
a description of it is here
It's written in Chinese, but basically it's a X-band, solid state active phased array radar. It can track target from 5 m/s to 7000 m/s (so basically everything). It has 360 degree coverage in azimuth and -3 to 93 degree in elevation. Can track 4 targets.

Against 0.1 m^2 target, it has effective range of 92 km with dual band and 112 km with single band. The precision is 0.3 m in distance, 0.01 m/s in speed, 0.45 mrad in azimuth and 0.45 mrad in elevation. The MTBG is over 300 hours and MTTR is < 1 hour.

It says that in missile testing range, it very quickly detected, tracked and measured missiles and drones. And that it successfully measured and processed the changes in velocity, distance, azimuth and elevation of multiple targets.

Looks like since that it got installed at the same time as the HQ-10 SAM in front of the bridge and another HQ-10 like SAM on the helipad. It should be the target acquisition radar for HQ-10.

btw these are close up shots of SAMs just installed on 892. You can actually see them in the last photo that a.man posted.

This first one is what we see on Varyag

This second one is similar but its width is greater than height as opposed to height greater than width in the first one. The installation/set up is kind of interesting with this one. Any thought?

Re: The PICs every PLAN enthusiast is waiting for

Tphuang,

Thanks for the link. As a side note, I think there might be a VLS between the bridge and the forward HQ-10 launcher having looked the elevated view posted by A.Man, I am wondering whether the radar on the main mast is a missile director.

Re: The PICs every PLAN enthusiast is waiting for

In addition to the items discussed, there is also a second dome installed on the starboard side of the aft superstrure to be considered. The ring for its base can be seen in the drydock photo.

The drydock picture also shows an rounded extension on the forward starboard corner of the newly erected platform on the helipad. This may be for the HHQ-10, though the base looks a bit too large, but one would rather expect the launcher to be in the ship's centre line, so it could also be for something entirely different.

I think the CL-HK radar on the bridge is simply laid down, as you suggest.

Re: The PICs every PLAN enthusiast is waiting for

Could they be testing ballistic missile tracking and interception?

Re: The PICs every PLAN enthusiast is waiting for

no_name, no. That most certainly does not look like a ABM set up.

franco_russe, the rounded area at the forward starboard corner of the platform erected on the helicopter deck is where what looks like a small RAM type launcher has been fitted as appears in the second photo posted tphuang.

The real question is whether there actually is a VLS system there. Otherwise this looks like a very highly specified CIWS system for picking-off small AShMs at short range only. At the moment we seem to have the following.

1) HK-CL43 radar, which can track only a measly 4 targets.
2) What seems like some sort of missile director mounted on top of the very tall main mast
3) 2 HQ-10 type launchers- though of different types
4) A large satcom like dome
5) The large whiter golf ball type dome

The last three items also put in an appearance on Varyag, this may a clue as to what is going on here- see my next paragraph.

To be honest I am still somewhat perplexed, this does not look the sort of fit one would expect for a frigate and certainly not a destroyer. Instead this looks more like it is testing a self defence suite for large vessels, amphibious ships and of course, aircraft carriers.

Edit; I have looked back at the latest Varyag pictures and think that item No.2 (missile director) MAY be present on Varyag- there are two items under sheets mounted on either corner of the aft bridge area that have a similar profile though this is pure speculation on my part.