China's Next Generation Destroyer

[skyrover]

Seems they are wasting no time... after the current run of 12 type 052D's are completed they will be shifting on to it's successor. the Type 055.

Main differences are:

13,000 ton vs 7,500 ton displacement
120 VLS cells vs 64
2 X 13 ton ASW helicopters vs 1 X 7 ton ASW helicopter

[randlemarcus]

versus

[skyrover]

randlemarcus said:

versus

there's talk of the Chinese building 30 type 055's.

[wildcat45]

Has that got a SMART-L radar on it?

Very impressive and good looking ships but I wonder how much show there is and how much engineering.

Put one next to a Type 45 for example. Both untested designs, but is their radar, data processing, information sharing as good as NATO kit?

And the weapon system?

As for the helos, always good to have more but are two of what they have as good as say a WildCat or a new HM2 Merlin?

I wonder.

[skyrover]

wildcat45 said:

Has that got a SMART-L radar on it?

Very impressive and good looking ships but I wonder how much show there is and how much engineering.

Put one next to a Type 45 for example. Both untested designs, but is their radar, data processing, information sharing as good as NATO kit?

And the weapon system?

As for the helos, always good to have more but are two of what they have as good as say a WildCat or a new HM2 Merlin?

I wonder.

We can only speculate... the general assumption is that the type 052D is comparable with the early Arleigh Burke class in general capability, although ahead in some areas.

The type 055 should be superior to anything in the current American navy aside from the Zumwalt class on a one to one basis.

Of course a ship is only as good as the team that supports it, so until the Chinese finish building up their replenishment and C4I capability, it will be at a disadvantage.

ASW has always been a weakness in the Chinese navy, so this should go some way to addressing it.

[RizzoTheRat]

wildcat45 said:

is their radar, data processing, information sharing as good as NATO kit?

Given that most Western consumer electronics is built in China these days I would have thought it fairly arrogant to assume that their military electronics would be far behind, especially as they probably don't have a procurement cycle that ensures any new kit in service was state of the art when the design was proposed 20 years earlier.

[hornetrider]

RizzoTheRat said:

Given that most Western consumer electronics is built in China these days I would have thought it fairly arrogant to assume that their military electronics would be far behind, especially as they probably don't have a procurement cycle that ensures any new kit in service was state of the art when the design was proposed 20 years earlier.

Hardware maybe, but not the software design expertise.

[RizzoTheRat]

Fair point but they've got to be advancing pretty rapidly.

[wildcat45]

Well if they are any good we should make them an offer.

Scary to think we've only got 19 escorts....

[Simpo Two]

Remember that it's not just who has the highest 'tech' that wins, but who can make them the fastest and who can keep them operational in the theatre of war.

[RizzoTheRat]

wildcat45 said:

Scary to think we've only got 19 escorts....

Yeah but we don't have any carriers to escort either so it's not that big a problem

[skyrover]

First steel cut



In other news, the second type 052D destroyer is out for sea trial... we could see 9 hull's of a total order of 12 launched by the end of 2015.

Edited by skyrover on Monday 29th December 21:45