Type 022 Missile Boat

Tam

Brigadier
Registered Member
I wonder if PLAN will ever succeed 022 and 056. Most PLA watchers argue against the procurement of ships smaller than frigates but I think there is a possibility of a future ASW corvette like the 056. Unlike the USA, France and the UK, China has enemy forces close to its shores. If they ever materialize I'd expect them to be displacing around 2000-2500 tons rather than 1400 tons like the current corvettes


I would expect it to be around 2500 tons or around the size of the 053. It will be powered by IEP and gas turbine for quietness and smoothness. The 056A lacks a torpedo decoy system (TDS; ship only has TAS and VDS) and a helicopter hanger. I'm thinking it may revolve around the trimaran concept like the Independence class, or like the 2017 proposed trimaran frigate. A trimaran platform allows for a large helicopter deck thanks to its wide and long butt, which makes it suitable for ASW helicopters. The inability to support the Z-20 based ASW helicopter is a key weakness to both the 056A and 054A, and has to be addressed with future designs.

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AndrewS

Brigadier
Registered Member
some thought currently exists along the lines of a 3000t/6000t/9000t/12000t lineup for PLAN surface combatants. 3000t light frigate, 6000t general purpose frigate, 9000t medium destroyer, 12000t heavy destroyer. If there is to be a new small surface combatant, I would expect it to be a bit larger than the 056, and certainly not of the form factor we see in 022s.

Is it really worth having both a 9000t and 12000t platform?

There's only a 33% difference in displacement, so I reckon the cost of a 12000t platform would be somewhere between 10-25% higher than a 9000t platform.

Given such a low difference, wouldn't they be better off just standardising on a single proven 12000t platform that they can mass produce?

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Today, we can see a much larger difference in standard platform sizes with the PLAN, where each level is 73%+ larger than the preceding size.

Type-056 Light Frigate / Corvette (1400-1600 tons)
Type-054 Frigate (4000 tons)
Type-052 Destroyer (7000-7500 tons)
Type-055 Large Destroyer (12000-13000 tons when the growth margin is used)

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Of course, ship sizes are creeping upwards, but I still see the PLAN maintaining a 4-tier Surface Navy, with platforms at similar displacement levels. A future 2000-3000 ton Light Frigate would make sense, but there are currently so many frigates and light frigates in the fleet that I don't think a new Light Frigate is a priority.
 

Michaelsinodef

Senior Member
Registered Member
Is it really worth having both a 9000t and 12000t platform?

There's only a 33% difference in displacement, so I reckon the cost of a 12000t platform would be somewhere between 10-25% higher than a 9000t platform.

Given such a low difference, wouldn't they be better off just standardising on a single proven 12000t platform that they can mass produce?

---

Today, we can see a much larger difference in standard platform sizes with the PLAN, where each level is 73%+ larger than the preceding size.

Type-056 Light Frigate / Corvette (1400-1600 tons)
Type-054 Frigate (4000 tons)
Type-052 Destroyer (7000-7500 tons)
Type-055 Large Destroyer (12000-13000 tons when the growth margin is used)

---

Of course, ship sizes are creeping upwards, but I still see the PLAN maintaining a 4-tier Surface Navy, with platforms at similar displacement levels. A future 2000-3000 ton Light Frigate would make sense, but there are currently so many frigates and light frigates in the fleet that I don't think a new Light Frigate is a priority.
I think the 052 7k-7.5k is actually kinda a bit too low/little for the PLAN, and they would like a bigger one (say 96 VLS compared to the 64 on 052D) which could very well make it land around the ~9k tons mark.

What's more, the 055 has a lot more automation so it has about the same crew size as 052D, a newer 9k tons class would probably incorporate such things and be say maybe ~15% less crew than a 055 and current 052D?

EDIT: I personally think it might be quite possible that China will have a future replacement for the 022, but it will be unmanded/drone boat.
And then maybe have some kind of newer boat (around say 1k-2k) that is the 'mothership' for the unmanded/drone 022 successor.
 

plawolf

Lieutenant General
You need to find them first. LO shaping, low silhouette, plus sea clutter that heavily degrades radar is a very potent combination. You are best spotting them by optical and thermal, which can put you in range of their CIWS or umbrella air cover.

You are forgetting all about sonar.
 

plawolf

Lieutenant General
From an aircraft? Explain.

I didn’t know 022s can hunt aircraft.

022s wants to hunt enemy warships, which tend to have sonar equipped as standard. Not to mention enemy forward deployed subs and fixed undersea sonar arrays. The further you push 022s out to open water, the more obvious what their sonar signals will be to enemy sonar operators.
 

ACuriousPLAFan

Brigadier
Registered Member
EDIT: I personally think it might be quite possible that China will have a future replacement for the 022, but it will be unmanded/drone boat.
And then maybe have some kind of newer boat (around say 1k-2k) that is the 'mothership' for the unmanded/drone 022 successor.
I bet the Zhu Hai Yun would be a technology test bed for such applications?

However, another thing to consider on this is how heavily should the drone command ship be armed to be able to reliably defend herself? Plus whether she would be operating on her own, or alongside major naval task groups or task forces?
 
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Tam

Brigadier
Registered Member
I didn’t know 022s can hunt aircraft.

022s wants to hunt enemy warships, which tend to have sonar equipped as standard. Not to mention enemy forward deployed subs and fixed undersea sonar arrays. The further you push 022s out to open water, the more obvious what their sonar signals will be to enemy sonar operators.

022s don't hunt aircraft. I'm saying it's not that easy to spot an 022 even from aircraft radar due to LO shaping, low silhouette and sea surface clutter working interactively with each other to degrade radar detection against it.

022s don't have sonar. I already pointed out in the past the boat is equipped with the MR36A or Type 362 radar that has over the horizon properties using atmospheric ducting. This is similar to the Type 366 used with larger vessels, although the 366 has much more range. The use of OTH radar has one big disadvantage is that the radar itself can give away your position if the other guy has the proper OTH ESM.

For a missile boat to hunt warships OTH without calling attention to itself, it would need aerial, drone and satellite assets. It would need to datalink to those assets. The 022 does appear to have standard datalinks but it lacks satcoms to communicate with satellites and the Type 366-2 datalink used to communicate with aircraft. This datalink appears with larger ships, and first introduced with the Sovremenny as part of the Mineral-M system.

It so happens the 056 rectified the lack of both SATCOM and 366-2 datalink, both of whom are visibly obvious as the two domes behind the antiship missiles.

The lack of the aerial datalink and the satcom is a big flaw to the 022 concept and its probably a factor why the 056 replaced it so early. But you can get around it by having another ship, like an 056, act as a router to datalink with aircraft and satellites, then coordinate and send the targeting information to the 022s using the ship to ship datalink. A 056 or even a 054A must act as a leader to support a pack of 022s.
 

Tam

Brigadier
Registered Member
This is the radar of the Type 022, the Type 362 or MR36A for its export name.

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It might have been fitted on other ships like Luhus or Ludas but I'm not sure. Exceeding 42km range is direct line of sight or radar horizon, but essentially this depends on how tall the target is. Exceeding 120km is for MOTH, as in Microwave Over The Horizon, which is Chinese acronym for Atmospheric Ducting.

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Atmospheric ducting happens to favor conditions in the East and South China Seas.

However, using this radar mode is a double edged sword, as you can give away your position to enemy ESM and have you targeted instead.

The ranges of the YJ-83 has also greatly exceeded 120km, making this mode on the radar obsolete. When the YJ-81 was first rocket powered, its range was 40km. Adding a turbojet pushed that to 80km as it became the YJ-82. Further refinements turned it to the YJ-83 as range reached over 120km. But continued improvements of the YJ-83 pushed the range further to 180km, then 240km then 300km on the YJ-83B with the canted nose and optical sensor. The latest versions of the missile outgrew the 022's organic sensors, and these missiles also equip the 056A.

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That's the slanted nose YJ-83B, and the firing platform is an obvious 056.

At this point, the 022 lacks the long range datalinks for airborne and satellite assets like the 056.


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The two of which are also obvious here behind the funnel of the 056. You can see two domes, a SATCOM and a long range datalink for aircraft to ship, which I believe is the Type 366-2 The 366-2 is based on the Russian Mineral ME3.

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The Mineral ME, which the Type 366 used on ships like the 054A, 052C and 052D, has a range of 250km on its active radar, and 450km on its passive radar. This is well adequate for firing all versions of the YJ-83 and the YJ-12. Below is the datalink. In the Chinese form, the dome is either round like this or in the 054A, or it takes the R2D2 form which is more common. Anatomically it has the same structure as a SATCOM with a parabolic antenna.

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Our 022 lacks any of these and that's a problem.

022.jpg


There is an antenna sticking out at the back of the ship and I believe that's a common datalink, and is found in most PLAN warships. So even with the lack of SATCOM and long range aerial datalink, the boat can still talk to a ship that have these and get target coordinates there. All it takes is a 056A or 054A to lead a formation of 022.

If you look at some of the competition, like the Tuo Chiang, the Tuo Chiang has a datalink and a SATCOM in front and behind the superstructure, or two SATCOMs.

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The lack of these were clearly flaws on the 022 design, a rare flub in PLAN planning, which they quickly rectified with the 056 design.

Defensively, I find the 022 to be well equipped. Its got a pair of ESM mounted on the arms of its tiny mast, which can warn the ship of threat radars, such as those from antiship missiles. Its got the luxury of chaff and decoys which might be selected according to the wavelength of the threat as determined by the ESM. The CIWS is optically aimed using an EOS, so it can't be radar jammed and radar LO shaping won't work against it. A missile with a passive seeker isn't going to work against a passive fire control system. A missile with an active seeker is going to have to work hard against the LO shaping, interacting with the sea clutter, and still deal with the decoys and the CIWS.
 
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