Posted on 06/29/2014 5:27:26 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
The Yueyang, a Type 054A guided-missile frigate of the People's Liberation Army Navy, is participating in the ongoing RIMPAC 2014 joint naval exercise held in Hawaii, and the country is already underway constructing more frigates of the same class, reports the state-run China News Service.
The Yueyang is in fact the 14th vessel among its other sister ships. With 575 as its hull number, the vessel was launched on May 10, 2012, and began its sea trials in September of that year before eventually entering the PLA Navy in March, 2013. The Yueyang, like other ships of its class, is designed to provide fleet air defense and can also coordinate with other vessels and naval aircraft in battle against enemy warships and submarines, CNS said.
The PLA Navy's Type 054A guided-missile frigates carry HQ-16 medium-range air defence missiles. Fired from the vertical launching system of a Type 054A frigate, the HQ-16 provides area air defence from all engagement angles up to a range of 50 kilometers. At the same time, the vessel can also launch various anti-submarine rockets and even anti-submarine missiles against enemy submarines.
Like many of its sister ships including the Xuzhou, Huangshan, Yiyang, Yuncheng, Hengshui, Yantai, Huangshi and Linyi, the Yueyang was constructed at the Huangpu Shipyard located in Guangzhou in southern China's Guangdong province under the supervision of the China State Shipbuilding Corporation.
It takes a shipyard like Huangpu around two years to complete the construction of a Type 054A frigate, CNS said. The last vessel of Type 054A class which will be named the Huanggang and the vessel will likely be launched next year, though it remains under construction at Huangpu Shipyard. Warships constructed by shipyard consistently perform well during joint sea naval exercises held by China and Russia, CNS added.
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The 20th will be finished this year.
At the same time, they have launced six Type 052C AEGIS-like destroyers, and another four of the Type 052D improved variety. These are very good vessels.
They intend to build at least 12 of the latter varity.
In the last two years, they have also luanch twenty of their new T%ype 056 crovettes, or light frigates. Also a very modern and capable design.
Yikes. They’re serious about it.
How are they doing on underway replenishment?
Not that they really need to be good at it to control the immediate areas / choke points around China.
Here you see one of their AOR doing a dual UNREP with an LPD (about the same size and config as our San Antonio Class), and one of their AEGIS-like DDGs. An FFG is waiting in the wings.
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