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China: Two type 054A frigates launched over three days, three more being built

By chankaiyee2 on October 3, 2013 • ( 1 )

Type 054A Frigate

On September 30, a Shanghai web user revealed that a new China-made Type 054A frigate completed fitting-out and was successfully launched. It is said that from September 28 to 30, two such frigates were launched at an interval of only three days.

On September 28, a certain shipyard launched another Type 054A smoothly. Sources say that the newest launched 054A frigate is the 19th of such frigates made by China.

The Type 054A (NATO codename Jiangkai II) frigate is the PLA navy’s newest type of frigate. At present, fifteen of them are in service and not less than three are under construction. Its predecessor is the type 054 frigate, two of which are in service.

The first 054, the Xuzhou, was launched at Guangzhou-based Huangpu shipyard on September 30, 2006, and commissioned in 2008. The type 054A uses a hulk similar to the type 054 but has much stronger fire power. It is the first kind of regional air-defence frigate that the PLA navy has equipped.

The ship uses type 382 3D plane radar, has a 32-unit VLS launch system and is equipped with the Hongqi-16 air-defence missile system, which has been developed and produced by China on its own after drawing in and assimilating Russian technology (refer to 3K9 surface-to-air missile NATO codename SA-N-7, which was imported from Russia along with Sovremenny-class destroyers).

Sources say its effective range is 45 km, operating altitude 10-25000 meters, hit rate, 0.75-0.98, and response time, 3-5 seconds. It is 5.5 meters in length and 0.35 meters in diameter and weighs 680 kg while its warhead weighs 65 kg.

Source: huanqiu.com “2 Type 054A frigates fit out and launched within 3 days” (translated from Chinese by Chan Kai Yee)