China makes progress on advanced warship bigger than Type 054A frigate

New satellite images show China has almost finished building an advanced frigate that experts have described as a mini destroyer designed to keep up with the country’s third aircraft carrier.

Imagery from a Pleiades satellite of Hudong Shipyard in Shanghai on January 21 shows a complete hull that appears similar to the Type 054A frigate, according to a picture posted by former US submariner Tom Shugart on his Twitter account on January 27, South China Morning Post reports.

“While the new frigate has long been rumoured as the Type 054B, I’d think it’s different enough to merit an entirely new class,” Shugart wrote, and estimated the new vessel’s displacement might be around 6,000 tonnes – almost 50 per cent greater than the Chinese navy’s active Type 054A frigate.

The hull of the new vessel is 147 metres (482 feet) long, about 8 metres longer than the original Type 054A, according to Shugart. He said the new warship would be equipped with the modern phased-array radar and vertical launching systems that are used by People’s Liberation Army destroyers.

Another satellite picture he posted to Twitter showed a section hull of the same frigate type that was under construction, appearing to have a beam of about 18 metres – 2 metres wider than the Type 054A.

Lu Li-shih, a former instructor at Taiwan’s Naval Academy in Kaohsiung, said he agreed with Shugart that the new vessel would be the long-rumoured Type 054B, an upgraded warship that was bigger and faster than the Type 054A frigate.

“I believe that the Type 054B frigate might have an integrated mast design similar to that of the Type 055 destroyer,” Lu said, referring to the PLA’s Type 055 Renhai class stealth-guided missile destroyer that has a displacement of more than 12,000 tonnes.

The Type 055 is the world’s second-most powerful destroyer after the US Navy’s DDG-1000, or Zumwalt class. With an integrated mast and powerful radar systems for detecting and defending against incoming hostile aircraft, missiles and warships, the Type 055 destroyer has been dubbed the “bodyguard” of Chinese aircraft carriers.

“The Type 054B might also be equipped with an on-board radar system and high power microwave, which would create an outer shield that could be used for anti-missile and unmanned vehicles for an escort battle group,” Lu said.

In April last year, an open tender posted by the Huangpu Wenchong shipyard in Guangzhou for military hull-grade steel to be delivered by May 20, 2022, was seen by several commentators as a sign that work was about to begin on the Type 054B multi-role frigate.

The tender notice said construction work on the Type 054B, with a displacement of more than 5,000 tonnes, was expected to start in late May 2022 and the ship was expected to be launched by the end of this year.

The new vessel is designed to accompany the PLA Navy’s future carriers, and to replace some ageing frigates, such as the Type 054, as well as Type 056 corvettes and including some vessels that have been in operation for more than two decades, according to Zhou Chenming, a researcher from the Yuan Wang military science and technology think tank in Beijing.

“The Type 054 and Type 056 corvettes have been exhausted dealing with the US warships in the past decade since the Americans stepped up the so-called freedom-of-navigation operations in the South China Sea,” Zhou said, adding that much of the warships’ equipment had aged.

The PLA plans to build at least four aircraft carrier strike groups by 2030, to become the world’s second biggest modern blue-water navy after the US. The Type 054B frigate, Type 052D destroyer and the powerful Type 055 cruiser are the key escort vessels for its aircraft carriers.