Type 053K Jiangdong-class Frigate - Origins
In the mid-1960s, the People's Navy had equipped the Type 01 (Chengdu-class) and Type 65 (Jiangnan-class) two types of artillery frigates, initially having the capability of offshore activities, and the artillery ships were in line with the surrounding countries. However, at this time, the advanced countries of the world navy have begun the process of ship missileization. With the development of China's missile technology and the construction of small missile ships. The Navy was also preparing to surpass the world's advanced level and promote the missileization of medium-sized surface ships, destroyers and frigates.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China in the 1950s, the Chinese navy faced a situation of poverty and blankness. The ships it owned were mostly the Kuomintang navy and the old ships left by the United States and Japan, which were seized, salvaged and repaired. After repairing some of the navigable frigates, the Chinese Navy formed the first frigate fleet. These repaired frigates have weak firepower, poor endurance and navigation performance, and have low seaworthiness and difficult maintenance. In actual combat they could play a very limited role.
Under this circumstance, China introduced the construction technology of the "Riga" class frigate from the Soviet Union in 1955 (all parts and technical documents provided by the Soviet Union, China assembled and built itself), which made the Chinese Navy possess a more practical and comparative A frigate with strong combat capabilities. In the early 1960s, China and the Soviet Union had political and ideological disputes. The Soviet Union withdrew all technical experts in China overnight and terminated military procurement and assistance projects. The development of many Chinese defense equipment stopped, dragged out and even cancel. It was no longer possible to continue to introduce advanced surface warships from the Soviet Union.
At the same time, China's coastal defense in the early 1960s was also unsettled. The Kuomintang navy, which retreated to Taiwan, often dispatched ships to harass the southeast coast of China, and the situation in the South China Sea was also in jeopardy. The new Chinese navy faced unprecedented coastal defense pressure. At this time, China’s self-built first-class domestic artillery frigate, the Type 65 frigate, relieved the problem of the lack of medium-sized surface warships to a certain extent. However, since the 1960s, the world’s naval powers had generally begun to missileize their frigates. Their combat capability had been greatly improved. The Chinese Navy also recognized this trend of frigates. While designing the Type 65 frigates, the use of missiles to equip surface warships was also officially put on the agenda. The 053K frigate was created in this context.
In the second half of 1965, the Navy proposed to develop a type of missile frigate. In 1966, the Type 053 missile frigate and the Type 051 guided missile destroyer were included in the naval ship development plan. The Navy intended to develop the Type 053 Frigate on the basis of the Type 65 ship. Its mission was mainly air defense and anti-submarine warfare. This kind of consideration was reasonable at the time - China did not have the experience of developing medium-sized missile ships. Separating the air defense and anti-ship missions was conducive to reducing the difficulty and risk of each type of ship development and minimizing the uncertainty factor. Later, the 051 ship was able to complete the development work, partly because of the small number of projects that need to be tackled in the initial design.
On the other hand, the 053K and 051 ships were planned at the same time, they would be a unity - the 051 type ship was responsible for the anti-urface ship warfare, the 053K type is the air defense, which was a reasonable battle tactical formation. But later, the 053K ship itself did not progress smoothly, which made the air defense capability of the Type 051 ship a problem.
With the requirements put forward by the Navy in 1966, the Shipbuilding Industry Ministry began relevant preliminary design work. After the coordination with the navy, in January 1967, the design party reported the 053 Small Artillery Guide Ship Tactical Technical Task Book. This was approved in the same year, but due to the influence of the Cultural Revolution, It was not until 1970 that the first ship began to formally cut metal. Like the Type 051, the ship was built using the popular “three-in-one” approach, but with the efforts of the design and construction side, the first ship was able to be launched in October, the ship number 222 (later changed to 531, "Yingtan"). The actual ship was basically the same as the original design, but the original design power part uses two diesel engines plus one gas turbine, three-axis propulsion scheme, The ship canceled the gas turbine setup and used dual-axis propulsion.
One of the ships of the Navy's key equipment approved by the 64th Standing Committee of the Central Military Commission in 1967 was the first-generation air-to-air missile frigate. Developed and built by China itself, at Hudong Shipyard, the 701 Institute and the Navy East Sea Fleet jointly developed in 1965 the vessel called a small artillery missile ship.
A tactical technical demonstration was conducted in early June 1966 to confirm the performance. In January 1967, the Seventh Institute reported the tactical technical task book (draft) to the Sixth Machine Department and the Navy Command with the Academy of Sciences, including:
- Adopting the three-axis scheme, the speed at the normal displacement is not less than 38 knots;
- There are 2 sets of H-61 ship-to-air missile launchers and 2 sets of firing command systems; 2 sets of 712 double 100 semi-automatic guns, 600 sets of missiles, 1 set of shooting command system; 715 type double 37 semi-automatic guns 4 seats, 8,000 rounds of ammunition, 1 set of firing command system.
- 2 sets of 18E390V diesel engine (cruising unit) and a 851 gas turbine (acceleration unit) form a combined power unit with a total power of 46,000 hp.
In March 1967, a Type IV ship design review and technical coordination meeting (315 meeting) including 053K was held. After the meeting, the Sixth Machine Ministry and the Navy jointly reported the design review to the State Planning Commission, the Defense Industry Office and the National Defense Science and Technology Commission. The Technical Coordination Report was approved in June 1967. In 1969, the three participating units set up a three-in-one development team and re-did two plans (100mm main gun, 98 meters long; 57mm gun, 94 meters long) to report to the superior. At the same time, because the life of the 851 gas turbine was too short, only 200 hours, the Navy is determined not to use it, so only 18E390V diesel engine were in the program. In January 1970, the Navy Shipbuilding Leading Group officially approved (053 Product Technical and Tactical Task Book) as the design basis for the 053K ship, and confirmed that it was officially opened in 1970.
After the hull of the first ship was launched, the relevant shipborne equipment, such as the air defense guide, was far from complete. If the hull was left at the shipyard for a long time, it would definitely result in scrapping. In order to allow the ship to form part of the combat force, to avoid waste, the development work scored in two phases: the first phase required the basic performance of the main engine and the main gun to be in place, and the double 37 gun is temporarily replaced by the old model. The unfinished electronic equipment was temporarily out of stock, and the ship was first delivered to the unit as a type of artillery frigate. The second phase of the project was to complete all the equipment that should be put on the ship. This should not have been the norm of the modern military industry, but at the time of China's weak industrial base, this special situation became a ubiquitous situation.
In March 1975, the first ship of the 053K ship completed the first phase of the project and delivered it to the Navy, but the design of the double 100mm gun and the ship-to-air missile system was delayed, depriving this type of frigate most of its capabilities. It was just a type of artillery ship. In the end, the ship's 37mm gun system, the 100mm-gun system and the "Red Flag-61" missile system were finalized in December 1982, December 1983, and December 1986. At this time, the end of the first phase project had passed 10 years. After the first phase of the delivery of the 532 ship, the installation position of the electronic equipment on the mast was mostly vacant.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
