PLAN Sovremenny DDG 136, 137, 138 & 139 Thread
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lcloo
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Their weapons configurations and less capable radars suggest that they will be used to support type 052D/DL and type 055 destroyers. In a way they are more like NATO's large frigates of similar displacement weights.
All early destroyer types built since late 1990s/early 2000s, type 051B, type 051C, type 052 and type 052B would be re-purposed as the "large frigates" of PLAN after their MLU, although they are still classified as destroyers.
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Given their guns, which you mention, and that they are all stationed in Eastern Fleet, likely their main role is to support amphibious operations. Here, they are likely to be operating under land-based air and air defence coverage.
They still got those nasty long range supersonic antiship missiles, this time the YJ-12 replaces the Sunburn. The unrefitted Sovremenny still carries the Sunburn. With the satellite datalink, they can be used in support and in coordination to a long range over the horizon antiship missile attack.
In peacetime, the Sov refits, like the 051B refit, carries the 052D ESM mast, so when it comes to processing signals they are as good as any 052D. They can be used as passive radar pickets, silently picking up and tracking ships and aircraft.
Looks like fan art on a proposed 956EM (138, 139) upgrade. These ships have not been refitted yet, but there substantial changes in these ships compared to the other two. I don't think the fan art is correct to suggest it would add a Type 364 radar mast where you already have the Positiv radar on top of the hanger as both do the same thing. Either the Positiv radar is kept, or replaced by the 364 radar in the same place. However the Positiv radar offers 3D image while the 364 radar is only 2D so that would be a downgrade, which makes me doubt that would be performed. More likely the Positiv will only be overhauled and no Type 364 will be installed, keeping the costs low.
I don't think the current navigation radars which are shaped like eyelids, forgot the code name for them, will be kept. They will be replaced by modern standard linear array navigation radars that you see just about everywhere else.
Compared to the previous Sunburn missile which is the most advanced of its family, the YJ-12 equipped Sovremenny has a 400 to 500km kill range compared to like 200 to 240km before. That's double the range. So the 052D can provide outer air defense layer while the Sovs and 054A provide middle defense layer while the Sovremenny snipes sea born targets up to 500km range.
People have the illusion it takes radars to light up an enemy ship so it gets targeted with antiship missiles. That's only true if the target ship is in direct visual or radar horizon, like 40km at most. If you want to target something way beyond the horizon, its either tracked by signals bouncing the atmosphere either passively (target ship's own radar emissions) or actively (you send the signals to be bounce off the atmosphere). Or you can have aircraft or drones spot the target and relay the target coordinates to your ship which is set into the antiship missiles. Or have a satellite spot the target and relay the target coordinates to your ship. At this point, it has completely nothing to do with your search radars but instead a combination of your ESM, passive radar or directional location, datalinks to aircraft, satellite, or drone.
Now all that stuff doesn't require huge expensive radars, and the fitting to the refitted Sovremenny makes them equal to the 052D in terms of antiship killing ability except for range. The 052D's YJ-18 could have a range up to 600km or over. However the YJ-12 are full supersonic so it reaches its 450km range much faster at nearly 3x.
The 051B refit is even more potent because it carries 16 instead of 8 YJ-12, and I expect the 052B refits the same.
Yes, unless it has some kind of height multipathing but that's too complicated to explain. The 364 is essentially a 2D radar scanning low near the surface. If it picks something up it would be down low.
The Positiv on the other hand is electronically scanning in the vertical but is mechanically turned on the horizontal. So it works like many common search radars that has this principle including the Fregat and Type 382. The difference is that the Positiv works on the much higher X band while search radars are on the more coarse S band. So while it's range is not as good as an S-band radar, not even close, it's discrimination abilities are much tighter and it's more clutter resistant. Compared to the 364, it's ranger might be higher, at 80km vs 60km, and it's X band has a tighter resolution than C-band. So in paper, it might have comparable to superior performance plus the huge bonus of being 3D.
For this to be on the latter two Sovremenny means the last pair has better defensive capabilities over their previous sisters.