China to Build Two Missile Corvettes for Bangladesh

[monitor]

China readies new missile corvette
LATEST TYPEefense analysts believe that the new missile boats will be perfectly suited to meet the challenges that China is facing in its South China Sea disputes
By J. Michael Cole / Staff reporter

A new type of Chinese missile corvette, the principal role for which might be to project power in the South China Sea, could be launched “within days,” military watchers said on the weekend.

Talk of a Type 056 class first emerged in late 2010. So far, little technical information has been released about the corvettes, which are believed to lie in the 1,400-to-1,700-tonne category.

Two shipyards, Hudong Shipyard in Shanghai and Huangpu Shipyard in Guangzhou, are engaged in what appears to be a race to complete the vessels.

Officials at Hudong reportedly announced late last week that the first Type 056 corvette could be launched “within days,” with possible commissioning at the end of this year.

A total of four hulls are known to be under construction, with completion expected to follow soon after the delivery of the lead ship.

Designs of the Type 056 show fin stabilization for high seas navigation with weapons including a 76mm main gun, four surface-to-surface missile (SSM) launchers — reportedly for the YJ-83 SSM, the latest Chinese design — and one FL-1000 surface-to-air missile launcher.

The corvette could also come equipped with torpedoes for limited anti-submarine capability.

It also has a helipad large enough to accommodate vertical takeoff and landing for unmanned aerial vehicles.

Analysts believe the Type 056 could replace or augment the six Type 037 Houjian 528 fast-attack craft that have been based in Hong Kong since 1997, with future production for other People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) fleets, where they could replace aging attack craft and frigates. The corvette could also be intended for export markets, with reports that the Bangladeshi navy has already expressed interest in its acquisition.

The new corvettes will fill a gap between smaller offshore patrol vessels and larger frigates and could be ideal for action in the South China Sea, where China is embroiled in disputes with Vietnam and the Philippines.

Analysts believe medium-sized ships like the Type 056 are better suited to combat light missile frigates with similar displacement already deployed by competitors in the volatile, mineral-rich body of water.

Beyond China’s disputes with the Philippines and Vietnam in the South China Sea, the new corvettes could also play a role in a conflict with Taiwan.

“The Type 056 looks like a rough match for the Taiwan Navy’s Lafayette frigates on a one-to-one basis,” James Holmes of the US Naval War College told the Taipei Times by e-mail last night. “Operated in ‘distributed’ fashion — multiple units networked to act in concert, combining their sensors and armaments — it would pose a serious challenge to Taiwan’s surface fleet in high-intensity combat.”

However, warships like the Type 056 are intended more to serve in a flotilla than to take part in major naval actions, Holmes said.

"Their armament is modest, but they outgun most competitors they’re likely to encounter in the South China Sea. They’re less useful in the Yellow and East China seas, where the competition is stiffer since the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force and the US Seventh Fleet are there,” he said.

In related developments, reports said on the weekend that the FFG 572 Yueyang — the 14th Type 054A destroyer in the PLAN — is scheduled to be commissioned with the 9th Destroyer Squadron in the South Sea Fleet sometime next year.

 

[eastwatch]

The news is confusing and wro. they are referring slightly larger Azmat which is a Fast attack craft for Pakistan navy as a corvette for bangladesh . actually LPC (large petrol craft ) is quoted as a corvette here .

Like everybody else I am also always confused about the classification of warships. Here I am quoting excerpts from a defence magazine that has explained the features of both a Corvette and a Fast Attack Craft (FAC):

""Corvette is a small, maneuverable, lightly armed warship, originally smaller than a frigate and larger than a coastal patrol craft, although many recent designs resemble frigates in size and role. Corvette Small, generally slow escort-type vessel, generally intended for ASW. They are also sufficiently habitable and have the endurance for long-range operations.

Best suited for coastal work but sometimes employed as a seagoing vessel. Often seem to be heavily armed for their size, but generally are lacking in things like sensors, electronics, reloads, range and accommodations.

Corvettes have a displacement between 540 and 2,750 long tons (and measure 180-330 feet (55-100 meters) in length. They are usually armed with medium- and small-caliber guns, surface-to-surface missiles, surface-to-air missiles, and underwater warfare weapons

FAC: Fast attack craft are smaller than corvettes and distinguishable from similar sized patrol craft by their higher speed (at least 25 knots). They are distinguishable also from inshore vessels by size, being around 50m in length, whereas the smaller craft are 30m or less. Due to their small size, FAC specialise in one discipline and cannot be considered multi-purpose platforms. Most are optimised for surface warfare using missiles and guns, and increasingly rarely, torpedoes.""

After reading the excerpts I am of opinion that the two boats are Corvettes and not FACs. These boats are 64m long and weigh 648 tons DWT. These two features are within the specifications of a frigate. The two will also be fitted with c-802 missiles and other weapons as a frigate should be. Why people are trying to DOWNGRADE these two as just FACs? China has already delivered a FAC only a week or two ago.

 

[Joe Shearer]

Like everybody else I am also always confused about the classification of warships. Here I am quoting excerpts from a defence magazine that has explained the features of both a Corvette and a Fast Attack Craft (FAC):

""Corvette is a small, maneuverable, lightly armed warship, originally smaller than a frigate and larger than a coastal patrol craft, although many recent designs resemble frigates in size and role. Corvette Small, generally slow escort-type vessel, generally intended for ASW. They are also sufficiently habitable and have the endurance for long-range operations.

Best suited for coastal work but sometimes employed as a seagoing vessel. Often seem to be heavily armed for their size, but generally are lacking in things like sensors, electronics, reloads, range and accommodations.

Corvettes have a displacement between 540 and 2,750 long tons (and measure 180-330 feet (55-100 meters) in length. They are usually armed with medium- and small-caliber guns, surface-to-surface missiles, surface-to-air missiles, and underwater warfare weapons

FAC: Fast attack craft are smaller than corvettes and distinguishable from similar sized patrol craft by their higher speed (at least 25 knots). They are distinguishable also from inshore vessels by size, being around 50m in length, whereas the smaller craft are 30m or less. Due to their small size, FAC specialise in one discipline and cannot be considered multi-purpose platforms. Most are optimised for surface warfare using missiles and guns, and increasingly rarely, torpedoes.""

After reading the excerpts I am of opinion that the two boats are Corvettes and not FACs. These boats are 64m long and weigh 648 tons DWT. These two features are within the specifications of a frigate. The two will also be fitted with c-802 missiles and other weapons as a frigate should be. Why people are trying to DOWNGRADE these two as just FACs? China has already delivered a FAC only a week or two ago.

No point getting confused. If you are on line, I would like to ask if I could set out the differences, and whether you would find it useful.

 

[Kazhugu]

Like everybody else I am also always confused about the classification of warships. .

nothing to be confused bro.......it depends on navy to navy...for example in the neighborhood...the Kamorta class of IN with a full displacement of 3000 tons are classified as corvettes while nearby Pakistan calls its F-22P Zulficar class of the exact same tonnage as frigates.....

i think the classification has something to do with the functionality as well and not with the tonnage alone.....warships whose primary role is fleet escort,patrol and protection agaisnt air and submarine threat are classified as frigates.....they are like the sentries of a fleet......they are not much used in isolation.....they are primarily defensive in nature.....

destroyers are warships that are more offensive in nature and are better armed with anti-ship and ship-surface missiles.....they can operate as the tip of the spear flanked by the frigates....

corvettes....im not sure.....as far as i have seen.....corvettes are used in a specialized anti-submarine role or by nations that dont need bigger warships or whose coastlines are shallow....

 

[Joe Shearer]

nothing to be confused bro.......it depends on navy to navy...for example in the neighborhood...the Kamorta class of IN with a full displacement of 3000 tons are classified as corvettes while nearby Pakistan calls its F-22P Zulficar class of the exact same tonnage as frigates.....

i think the classification has something to do with the functionality as well and not with the tonnage alone.....warships whose primary role is fleet escort,patrol and protection agaisnt air and submarine threat are classified as frigates.....they are like the sentries of a fleet......they are not much used in isolation.....they are primarily defensive in nature.....

destroyers are warships that are more offensive in nature and are better armed with anti-ship and anti-surface missiles.....they can operate as the tip of the spear flanked by the frigates....

corvettes....im not sure.....as far as i have seen.....corvettes are used in a specialized anti-submarine role or by nations that dont need bigger warships or whose coastlines are shallow....

Functionality, also speed and size.

Destroyers are the largest, fastest, strongest, and some American destroyers go up to WWII Light Cruiser tonnages and far, far greater firepower, not taking tubed artillery into consideration. On the other hand, Hunt-class destroyers from WWII were very small, about 1,000 tonnes each. The Royal Navy identified fast, fleet destroyers, meaning destroyers which accompanied a fleet of capital ships, and escort vessels, meaning reasonably well-armed anti-submarine, anti-ship and anti-aircraft vessels slow enough to keep pace with merchantmen and yet be sea-worthy, as two different categories of vessel.

India had the Godavari, Gomti, Ganga; my uncle commanded this squadron (D22) as CO of Godavari.

As the war went on, it was found to be impossible to keep up the pace of production using Royal Navy design criteria, so a line of slower than destroyer but almost the same size vessels came to be built to mercantile ship-building criteria. These were the frigates (Royal Navy language). Frigates were essentially for convoy escort, and for defence against submarines and aircraft, not against heavy capital ships acting as commerce raiders; any of them would blow a frigate out of the water. They continue today in every navy, serving the purpose of slower ships with a full range of armaments, intended for convoy duties, but since convoys are not a day-to-day phenomenon, they have increased their weight, speed and armaments until they resemble destroyers very closely. Tonnages and speeds have changed so radically that no precise definition is possible any more; as you mentioned, functionality is important.

Corvettes were tiny boats, much smaller than even frigates, originally meant for off-shore work, typically for guarding British coastal shipping and small ports against German submarine or surface raider attacks. However, dire need and the huge shortfalls of vessels saw them being pressed into action in the Murmansk convoys, to mixed effect. They were small, quick, highly maneuverable and so on; they were also miserable to live in during the stormy days at sea of the Murmansk convoys, as they had never been designed to allow living on board on the high seas in stormy weather. They were pulled out as early as possible, as soon as the frigates represented sufficient numbers to take over their rightful functions as slow, convoy escorts across the high seas.

Fast attack craft are the replacements of yesterday's motor gunboats, motor torpedo boats and the like, the name fast attack craft being used as a replacement for all of the earlier categories. Another category that got swept up in this umbrella designation was the Russian missile boat, which allowed a very small boat of a few hundred tonnes to carry short- and medium-range missiles, like the OSA-class boats. FACs are typically, though not always, 500 to 1,000 tonne class boats with planing hulls, with top speeds between 25 to 40 knots, carrying machine guns, quick-firing cannon and missiles in specific configurations. They are faster than corvettes though overlapping them in size, and carry fewer weapons; corvettes sometimes carry small, ship-borne helicopters, FACs, never.

Long Range Patrol vessels were designed for fisheries protection and supervision of sea routes very far distant from home ports, where a heavier-armed vessel might simply not be needed: to avoid over-kill, in other words. Such a boat, with inflatable or inflated RIB type boats might be the right combination for anti-piracy patrols, which do not deserve to have a destroyer, or even a frigate deployed; a corvette would be hell to live on.

The boats depicted look like Chinese derivations of the OSA-class missile boats, and properly belong to the missile boat class, in modern terminology, the fast attack craft class. However, each navy decides its own designations - the USN, for instance, has denied the existence of cruisers for decades now - and the Bangladesh Navy might well choose the corvette designation. It seems too fast to be a corvette, carries no chopper, and is disproportionately heavily armed. None of that should stop a designation like corvette.

 

[Kazhugu]

@Joe Shearer.......technically destroyers are not the "largest and strongest"......i guess that title goes to the the cruisers....the Kirov class......but since most nations dont operate cruisers...we can for all intent and purposes call them (destroyers) the largest and strongest...


as for speed.....if i am not mistaken....the corvettes are supposed to the fastest among the three major groupings...destroyers,frigates and corvettes...or more generally there is not much difference in the specified speed of the three.....but then again that is more of a functionality of the engine output, the operational requirement and the design.....than a necessary attribute that helps in classification.....

 

[mosu]

excellent congratulations

 

[Major Shaheb]

Source: China to Build Two Missile Corvettes for Bangladesh | Defense Update Portal

Hey, they are talking about Dhaka class LPC-M. Its not a corvette.

 

[PlanetSoldier]

Like everybody else I am also always confused about the classification of warships. Here I am quoting excerpts from a defence magazine that has explained the features of both a Corvette and a Fast Attack Craft (FAC):

""Corvette is a small, maneuverable, lightly armed warship, originally smaller than a frigate and larger than a coastal patrol craft, although many recent designs resemble frigates in size and role. Corvette Small, generally slow escort-type vessel, generally intended for ASW. They are also sufficiently habitable and have the endurance for long-range operations.

Best suited for coastal work but sometimes employed as a seagoing vessel. Often seem to be heavily armed for their size, but generally are lacking in things like sensors, electronics, reloads, range and accommodations.

Corvettes have a displacement between 540 and 2,750 long tons (and measure 180-330 feet (55-100 meters) in length. They are usually armed with medium- and small-caliber guns, surface-to-surface missiles, surface-to-air missiles, and underwater warfare weapons

FAC: Fast attack craft are smaller than corvettes and distinguishable from similar sized patrol craft by their higher speed (at least 25 knots). They are distinguishable also from inshore vessels by size, being around 50m in length, whereas the smaller craft are 30m or less. Due to their small size, FAC specialise in one discipline and cannot be considered multi-purpose platforms. Most are optimised for surface warfare using missiles and guns, and increasingly rarely, torpedoes.""

After reading the excerpts I am of opinion that the two boats are Corvettes and not FACs. These boats are 64m long and weigh 648 tons DWT. These two features are within the specifications of a frigate. The two will also be fitted with c-802 missiles and other weapons as a frigate should be. Why people are trying to DOWNGRADE these two as just FACs? China has already delivered a FAC only a week or two ago.

Sorry...which FAC China delivered a week or two ago?

 

[eastwatch]

Sorry...which FAC China delivered a week or two ago?

Sorry, I might have made a mistake. China has delivered probably a LPC only a few weeks ago. Please correct me if I am wrong. BN has produced one Khulna-class FAC and has taken delivery of it. Another four are now under construction. All with Chinese technical collaboration.

 

[eastwatch]

Hey, they are talking about Dhaka class LPC-M. Its not a corvette.

I wonder if the Corvettes made in China can be called Dhaka class. Please someone clarify it. Now about Large Missile Patrol Craft, I thought China has already supplied one and these two are different because these are being called Corvette. So, please someone get through all the information and find out the delivary status, types and the classes of these recent boats.

 

[Yogi]

I wonder if the Corvettes made in China can be called Dhaka class. Please someone clarify it. Now about Large Missile Patrol Craft, I thought China has already supplied one and these two are different because these are being called Corvette. So, please someone get through all the information and find out the delivary status, types and the classes of these recent boats.

U can all them whatever u like we call Russian Krivak Class frigates as Talwar Class in India or the Pakistanis calling ur LPC as Azmat...

 

[monitor]

Like everybody else I am also always confused about the classification of warships. Here I am quoting excerpts from a defence magazine that has explained the features of both a Corvette and a Fast Attack Craft (FAC):

""Corvette is a small, maneuverable, lightly armed warship, originally smaller than a frigate and larger than a coastal patrol craft, although many recent designs resemble frigates in size and role. Corvette Small, generally slow escort-type vessel, generally intended for ASW. They are also sufficiently habitable and have the endurance for long-range operations.

Best suited for coastal work but sometimes employed as a seagoing vessel. Often seem to be heavily armed for their size, but generally are lacking in things like sensors, electronics, reloads, range and accommodations.

Corvettes have a displacement between 540 and 2,750 long tons (and measure 180-330 feet (55-100 meters) in length. They are usually armed with medium- and small-caliber guns, surface-to-surface missiles, surface-to-air missiles, and underwater warfare weapons

FAC: Fast attack craft are smaller than corvettes and distinguishable from similar sized patrol craft by their higher speed (at least 25 knots). They are distinguishable also from inshore vessels by size, being around 50m in length, whereas the smaller craft are 30m or less. Due to their small size, FAC specialise in one discipline and cannot be considered multi-purpose platforms. Most are optimised for surface warfare using missiles and guns, and increasingly rarely, torpedoes.""

After reading the excerpts I am of opinion that the two boats are Corvettes and not FACs. These boats are 64m long and weigh 648 tons DWT. These two features are within the specifications of a frigate. The two will also be fitted with c-802 missiles and other weapons as a frigate should be. Why people are trying to DOWNGRADE these two as just FACs? China has already delivered a FAC only a week or two ago.

Actually in defence matter what i am seeing nothing is abide by the definition for classification .
Iran have classified their 1500+ ton warship as destroyer and Germany classified 5700 ton as frigate . so it can assumed that we can classified it as per our wish . but I think if we go by the classification the BN is giving LPC would finish any debate .

 

[Avisheik]

I wonder if the Corvettes made in China can be called Dhaka class. Please someone clarify it. Now about Large Missile Patrol Craft, I thought China has already supplied one and these two are different because these are being called Corvette. So, please someone get through all the information and find out the delivary status, types and the classes of these recent boats.

I think currently all our ships are being named after places so that it wont be changed(due to political reason) if another party gets into power. Good decision in my opinion.

These "corvettes" in the article is our LPCs that were laid down a quite a while ago. The bangladeshi media uses LPC and corvettes interchangeably.

If you compare the specs of these "corvettes" you will see they are the same as our LPC. So this news is actually about our LPC, not new corvettes

 

[boltu]

I think the reporter is talking about the 2 new LPCs not corvettes and BN awarded a contract to a Chinese company for 2 new corvettes which is most likely to be the 'type 56'(custom made).From now on BN will induct only those corvettes/frigates which can facilitate helicopter.