Type 054B / Type 57 frigate

The name of this frigate has been variously called 054B and 057 over the years, but in recent times 054B appears to be the designation. The 054B nomenclatures is misleading, in that the 5,000 ton Type 054B is much larger than the 4,000 ton Type 054A and is a completely new design, though inheriting a number of common features.

This dog has not barked. As of early 2020, there were no reported indications of the commencement of building the first unit of this class. Chinese media continued to report on this forthcoming Frigate, and plausible new artwork continued to proliferate. China announced plans for a new multi-role frigate class warship in 2013. At that time the lead ship was expected to be commissioned by the PLAN in 2016 or 2017, but by 2020 no ships had been forthcoming.

The 054B frigate, which was designed in 2016, has been delayed for some reason. In summary, if the Navy ’s medium-term plan is to build six aircraft carrier formations, it will build a large surface ship with full combustion, full drive, and full armament. Therefore, no new frigates would be built in the medium term. There were already dozens of frigates in the navy, sufficient to defend patrol, alert, fisheries, anti-submarine and other tasks along the coast and in the middle and offshore China.

The 054B missile frigate was the first large main surface ship of the Chinese Navy to carry out a design competition. It completed the comprehensive demonstration of the project in early 2012, and then began the design work. The 054B frigate was designed and bid by two shipping companies. Among them, CSSC submitted a three- hull plan, while CSIC Group was a conventional hull plan, and the CSIC Group won. The tri-ship plan was abandoned by the Navy and does not mean that it is behind the conventional hull scheme at the technical level. Just as a user, the Chinese Navy had a comprehensive consideration of its own needs and operational capabilities. It can only be said that the Navy chose the one that best met its own needs.

The 054B frigate is considered to be an enhanced version of the 054A frigate and the final form of the previous 054A design. Compared to the 054A frigate, the ship has achieved many leap forwards such as integrated radio frequency, all-electric propulsion, phased array radar, and new combat systems. Moreover, the stealth design of the ship is also outstanding.

The 054B frigate was the first to use electric propulsion in a surface warship of the Chinese Navy. Because the electric propulsion system has good speed regulation characteristics, there is no need to configure a traditional reduction gear box. The prime mover part is not rigidly connected to the shaft system. The generator set is placed on an elastic base and connected to the propulsion motor through a cable, which can greatly reduce the ship. Self-noise, and improve concealment. If the 054B frigate exists, it is likely to follow two principles in the improvement: first, the combat capability has been greatly improved, but the price cannot be significantly improved, and it must be upgraded and modified under the control of cost risk, otherwise Lost the life of this frigate. Secondly, 054B does not need to be "tall", and it does not need to be on par with 052C or even 052D in terms of combat capabilities. It is still a frigate. In the development and construction, it is necessary to consider compatibility with the 054A mid-term modification work and finally achieve " Spend little money on big things."

The formation of the carrier Liaoning Ship consists of a 052D destroyer, a 051C destroyer, three 052C destroyers, two 054A frigates, and a 901 large-scale integrated supply ship. As the 054A uses a diesel engine, the power is not sufficient, and the speed is different from other ships. As a escort ship of the Liaoning ship, it is somewhat slow. After the power system is updated in the future 054B, the speed will be greatly increased, which can fully meet the speed of the carrier battle group.

The 054A frigate has a displacement of less than 4,000 tons. The full displacement of the 054B frigate will be further increased to around 5,000 tons. The displacement of warships determines its ability to resist wind and waves, fuel and ammunition loads, and to some extent is also an important indicator to analyze its combat effectiveness. This allows the 054B frigate to carry more fuel and ammunition on the basis of improving its endurance and self-sustainability. In line with the trend of the world's frigates moving towards large tonnage. For more than 10 years, many European countries have built large-scale air defense and general-purpose frigates after stopping the construction of destroyer ships. These frigates have a full displacement of more than 5,000 tons, and some have installed phased array radar and missile systems with a certain area air defense capability.

Replacing the new anti-submarine sonar system is obviously a way of "treating the symptoms and not treating the root cause". To fundamentally fill the largest short board of the 054A frigate, it is necessary to replace the marine power unit and propulsion system. As a result, the 054A frigate's major improvement, China's new generation of main battle frigate 054B came into being.

According to multiple sources, the normal displacement of the 054B frigate selected by the Chinese Navy may exceed 4,500 tons, and the maximum displacement may reach more than 5,000 tons. This has surpassed the data on the displacement of the main warships in some European countries , indicating that the positioning of the 054B frigate in the Chinese Navy surface ships has been quite different from the 054A frigate.

The 054A frigate temporarily acts as an anti-submarine ship in the Chinese naval aircraft carrier formation, and will be fixed by the 054B frigate in the future. The 054B frigate was first powered by electric propulsion in the Chinese Navy's main battleship. Because the electric propulsion system has good speed regulation characteristics, there is no need to configure the traditional reduction gear box. The prime mover part is not rigidly connected with the shaft system. The generator set is placed on the elastic base and connected with the propulsion motor through the cable, which can greatly reduce the ship's self-noise, and improve concealment.

With diesel-fired combined power, higher speeds can be achieved to keep up with the formation speed of the aircraft carrier. According to industry insiders in the ship's military industry, the 054B frigate may use a QC280 domestic gas turbine with an output of about 23 megawatts and two 16PA6STC diesel engines with a combined output of 10 megawatts. The total output of the power unit is about 33 megawatts.

With diesel-fuel combined power, higher speeds can be obtained in order to keep up with the speed of the aircraft carrier formation. According to industry insiders in the marine industry, the 054B frigate may use one QC280 domestic gas turbine with an output of about 23 MW , two 16PA6STC diesel engines with a total output of 10 MW, and a total power output of about 33 MW. The real 057 type is not a simple amplification of 054A type, an observers can only wait until the ships is in the water to know its true capacity. But capabilities can be estimated bassed on "tactical needs" and "technical possibilities" to start with a "portrait" of the ship. In order to improve airworthiness, the displacement will increase to 5,000 tons, mainly to increase the width of the ship, reducing the aspect ratio, wider warships are also conducive to hair and power cabin layout. Increasing the displacement and the width of the hull will significantly increase the resistance, while the speed will increase to 29 to 30 knots, so there is a need to significantly increase the total power output power. Types 051B and 051B, 051C of the displacement and weapons vary widely.

The biggest upgrade of the 054B frigate should be enhanced search and anti-submarine weapon configuration, including: the rear pod is equipped with a towed line array sonar, a fish-8 long-range anti-submarine missile, and one Z-18 or two Z-9 anti-submarine Helicopter. As a general-purpose frigate with anti-submarine as its main task, the 054B ship will build three three-dimensional search and anti-submarine networks in the middle, near and far.

In the long range, the 054B ship mainly relies on straight-18 or straight-9 anti-submarine helicopters and towed line array sonars to search and attack underwater submarines; in the medium range, the 054B ship mainly relies on Yu-8 long-range anti-submarine missiles to attack For submarines, the missile has a maximum range of 100 kilometers; at short range, the 054B ship mainly relies on light torpedoes and anti-submarine rockets to boost deep bombs to destroy shallow water targets within 10 kilometers.

As a general-purpose frigate with anti-submarine as its main task, the 054B ship will build a three-dimensional search and anti-submarine network in the distance. At a long distance, the 054B type mainly relies on Z-18 or Z-9 anti-submarine helicopters and towed line array sonar to search for and attack underwater submarines; in the middle distance, the 054B type mainly relies on the fish-8 long-range anti-submarine missile to attack. Submarine, the missile has a maximum range of 100 kilometers; at close range, the 054B type mainly relies on light torpedoes and anti-submarine rockets to boost deep-bombs to destroy shallow water targets within 10 kilometers.

The 054B may be equipped with a new type of 76mm stealth automatic gun, a ship's head equipped with a 1130 type near-defense system, and a stern equipped with a sea red flag. The Cheng Air-to-Air missile can carry 8 eagle-strike 83 anti-ship missiles in the middle, and can also carry 4 eagle-shot 12 large-scale anti-ship missiles, and the 054B is equipped with a 32-unit vertical missile launching system. Compared with the 054A frigate, the 054B's vertical missile launching system has a larger caliber. In addition to the improved red flag 16 air defense missile, the smaller caliber anti-submarine and anti-aircraft missiles can achieve “one pit and four bombs” and increase the number of missiles. At the same time as the type, it also greatly improved the firepower.

Although the Chinese Navy already has a certain number of 052C and 052D air defense destroyers, from the perspective of the weapon configuration of these two ships, it is mainly used to perform regional air defense missions for formations. Although the 10,000-class destroyer type 055 is an all-purpose warship with various tasks such as air defense, regional anti-missile, land attack, anti-ship and anti-submarine, the ship is expensive and impossible for the Chinese navy. Each ocean-going fleet is equipped with a Type 055 ship. In short, the 054B frigate will become a low-end anti-submarine ship in the ocean fleet and become a partner of the high-end 055 and 052E destroyers.