Bilal9
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Waiting for your updates......
This is what the 054A looks like right now. The most advanced frigate in the PLA Navy. 24 to be built and 95% commissioned.
It is a medium sized frigate displacing 4,000 tonnes, and dimensions and power-plants as such,
- Length: 134 m
- Beam: 16 m
- Propulsion: CODAD, 4 x Shaanxi 16 PA6 STC diesels, 5700 kW (7600+ hp @ 1084 rpm) each
Notice the sensors spread all over the ships top surface (image above), including
- Type 382 Radar (Upgraded from Type 381 Radar "Sea Eagle S/C") 3D air/surface search radar
- Type 344 Radar (Mineral-ME Band Stand) OTH target acquisition and SSM fire control radar
- 4 × Type 345 Radar(MR-90 Front Dome) SAM fire control radars
- MR-36A surface search radar, I-band
- Type 347G 76 mm gun fire control radar
- 2 × Racal RM-1290 navigation radars, I-band
- MGK-335 medium frequency active/passive sonar system
- ZKJ-4B/6 (developed from Thomson-CSF TAVITAC) combat data system
- HN-900 Data link (Chinese equivalent of Link 11A/B, to be upgraded)
- SNTI-240 SATCOM
- AKD5000S Ku band SATCOM
- 1 × 32-cell VLS (HQ-16 SAM and Yu-8 anti submarine rocket)
- 2 × 4 C-803 anti-ship / land attack cruise missiles
- 1 × PJ26 76 mm dual purpose gun
- 2 × Type 730 7-barrel 30 mm CIWS gun
- 2 × 3 324mm YU-7 ASW torpedo launchers
- 2 × 6 Type 87 240mm anti-submarine rocket launcher (36 rockets carried)
- 2 × Type 726-4 18-tube decoy rocket launchers
This is the future visualization of 054C (Some sources say the new designation is 057 class)
The new frigate design is far more stealthy, bridge is much, much lower in profile a la 056 class (C13B), and above all armament much more powerful with a much larger main gun, 48 Modular VLS cells (some of these cells will reportedly contain modular missiles and rocket packs under development now), spaces for two helos instead of one in 054A, strong close in anti-air gatling barrel gun weapon CIWS system 1130 instead of 730 in 054A, which are already being put into some 054A's for trials (see below), of course improved torpedoes too, and good eight anti-surface missile compliment. And the sensors will be of course much more modern which I won't go into right now.
The 054C would probably displace in excess of 6,000 tons (compared to 4000 tons for 054A) and be closer to a destroyer in terms of its armament as described.
However the most distinctive feature is the collective pyramid shaped stealthy sensor towers containing all sensors (see above), which reduce clutter and thereby radar signatures even further. Some have described this as equivalent to the Republic of Singapore Navy RSS Formidable class frigate (the name is quite apt. - I have a lot of respect for that DCNS design built in Singapore, in fact the Malaysians are also building similar boats at Boustead).
In the power arena - the 054C will need to be powered by gas turbines, such as GE LM2500 series or larger.
The 054C is ideal to be the flagship of our Navy (two for now built via ToT). Any larger would be a waste because we should ideally limit our Navy's role to our littoral defensive posture at least for the next two decades. There can be other smaller frigates in the fleet, but they don't need to be larger than the C28 class or the Bangabandhu class (i.e. larger than 3000 tonnes).