Two days ago, a new warship returning from a sea trial was found near a shipyard in Shanghai, although it was not news to see the new 054a near Hudong Zhonghua, but the completely different hull spraying style of the 054a, as well as the domestic top plate 382 radar that disappeared at the top of the main mast, the launcher in the middle of the hull that was completely different from the Eagle Strike-83 missile, and the long-range early warning radar in front of the helicopter hangar, all detailed its identity.
This is the first ship of the 054ap type frigate ordered by the Pakistan Navy to China, and all the sea trial work before the delivery has been completed, this time back to port, it is ready to hand over to customers, and then the Pakistani crew will drive back to the home port, according to the time revealed by Pakistan's enthusiastic military fans on the Internet, it should be next week's ceremony; the Pakistani Navy will be happy to mention the new absolute main force.
From the photos returning from this sea trial, we can also see more clearly the clear and obvious difference between the completed 054ap compared to our army's self-use model, which can be said to be anti-ship, air defense and anti-submarine have been fully strengthened, and also reached the 054a 4000-ton frigate platform, which is absolutely top in China's finished technical capabilities.
Compared with the self-use model to add a meter wave long-range early warning radar in the rear and our military in the 052c/d type installed very similar, although Pakistan is not currently facing the threat of Indian stealth aircraft, but this long-range early warning radar in increasing the ship's air-to-air surveillance distance and other performance has been greatly improved, and the 382 top plate three coordinate radar is replaced by sr2410c phased array radar, although there is not much improvement in the detection distance, but it significantly improves the multi-target tracking capability. With the miwave radar to provide long-range vigilance, the 054ap is much better than the self-use model in terms of air-to-air detection capabilities; although the anti-aircraft missiles and guided radars have not been further upgraded, the performance of the Hongqi-16 is sufficient considering the redundancy of the platform and the actual threat level of India. At least the Indian Air Force's Su-30 no longer has the ability to throw a submarine-reducing anti-ship operation like Brah Mos outside the Radar Detection Range in Pakistan.
Compared with the air defense upgrade detection but no upgrade strike, in the anti-ship equipment, that 054ap is a cross-generation upgrade, from the previous use of the Eagle Strike-83, the previous generation of tactical anti-ship bombs at the end of the subsonic transsonic speed, the Eagle Strike-12 full supersonic penetration, the warhead charge and range have also been improved The combat tactical anti-ship elasticity can undoubtedly be much stronger, and it is also advanced equipment in our army; in this way, in the face of the Indian army's various single ships, there are many threats, It can be said that it is tailor-made for the Pakistani Navy.
The same is to the old customers to export large and medium-sized surface ships, and the same is the frigate, we have more sincerity for Pakistan than Russia for India, we exported 054ap to Pakistan, that is the radar to increase the configuration for him, the missile to him to increase the configuration, the performance of various subsystems are better than our military's own use, Russia to India to export 11356 Well, that is not the same, closed stern changed to semi-open, pyramid closed mast is also cut into a mast, Obviously there is a vertical launch version of the 3s90 missile, the partial export version is equipped with a tilting launcher, these details of the design of the 'small optimization', fully guarantee that India got the export version, stealth performance and air defense capabilities, are worse than the Russian military's own model so much worse. This is called absolute care for old friends in strategy and old customers in arms sales.
Of course, there are also many people who see that Pakistan's export version uses such a high-end configuration, and they are also very hungry, and they want to give our army's 054a an upgrade top match; to say that it is really not necessary, 054a in our army and 054ap in the Pakistani army is a completely different status. This kind of enhanced design of the main force of the commuter ship can be said to be completely customized for export users, the people's navy has now initially established a two-level system of separating the battleship and the commuter ship, the fleet has a special air defense destroyer to provide regional air defense cover, the anti-ship also has a complete anti-ship system, and then engage in all-round frigates is a waste of money.
For our army, 054a has two different roles, one is as a commuter ship, performing the task of sea power maintenance, to maintain the line of communication; the patrol on duty to ensure the crossing of the traffic, this level of threat does not require heavy armament, but more need good seaworthiness and living conditions, on the other hand, the next generation of universal destroyers are not in service, the fleet does not have professional anti-submarine ships, before the use of professional anti-submarine missions as fleet anti-submarine ships. At this time, the long-range air defense vigilance and the regional air defense cover of the fleet have 052c/d and even 055 to provide air support, sharing intelligence through the data link is ok, anti-ship do not have to worry, Eagle Strike-83 hits the boat on the line, fleet operations and destroyers on the hanging system belt of Eagle Strike -18 and even the future Eagle Strike-21 to solve.
For Pakistan, it is impossible to afford to raise even the capital ships of the fleet at the level of 052c/d, and there are several anti-aircraft anti-ship and anti-submarine all-round ships to serve as the absolute core of the navy, which is of course the only realistic choice that is necessary and realistic. Moreover, the positioning of the Pakistan Navy is relatively simple and direct, as long as it can resist India's use of its naval superiority to carry out a far-reaching and even near-reaching sea blockade against Pakistan; it is enough to annihilate India's blockade forces with the cooperation of the air force.
From this point of view, the 054ap that suddenly allowed the Pakistani Navy to enter the era of regional air defense and the era of supersonic anti-ship, that is really conscience equipment, the status is probably similar to the first two Modern class purchased by our army that year; and the quotation given by our country is also very conscientious, fully reflecting the sincerity of friends.