054A photos from HP shipyard + Varyag photos

I've come across some really good photos of new 054A from HP shipyard and recent photos of Varyag. First, for the 5th 054A and also the 4th 054A from HP:
More detailed photos of the 5th 054A, looks like most of the sensors are already installed. I'm still a little shocked by how it just appeared.



The 4th 054A from HP, No 548, resting in the dock with Haijian-75, one of the new cutters.



Now, recent photos of Varyag from Dalian. It looks like a lot of work has been done since the last set of photos we've seen. The island is now all painted, although the sensors are still yet to be installed. There are still many boxes, containers, cables and generators sitting on its deck. I will let you guys make judgment on how it's progressing.

New 054A + MSA ships

First of all, I was hit with a huge surprise yesterday morning when I saw pictures of the 5th 054A from HP shipyard. Normally, we see a nice progression of photos of the ship being built, but this one was almost ready to be launched by the time we got the first photos. On top of that, I had expected PLAN to stop producing 054 ships for a while after the 2nd batch of 4 were completed. After more extended look and checking my sources, it does appear to be authentically the 5th 054A from HP shipyard. They did a really good job of hiding this ship behind a civilian ship, so we did not know it was being built all along. By the time this ship was in plain sight, it was already fitted with sensors. This ship appears to be a little different from the previous 4 from far out, so I'm eagerly waiting for more close up photos before it is launched. As we know, 054 ships normally get built in pairs with one in HP shipyard and one is HD shipyard. With the appearance of this one, we can assume a 5th one will also be built in HD. That indicates we would have at least 2 054s and 10 054As. A while ago, Richard Fisher did an interview with one of the diesel engine makers that said they expected PLAN to produce about 12 054/As based on the diesel engines they purchased. After that, they expected PLAN to move on to a design that also used gas turbines. From that, I would expect that they stop producing 054A designs after this pair and start producing a modified design that is a little larger after 2 to 3 years. A separate possibility is that they will produce a few more 054As to rotate to Gulf of Aden. Anyhow, here is the new ship. You can see that the 4th 054A from HP (No 548) has come back.


Another interesting part is seeing a new MSA ship beside No 548. From following Chinese Maritime patrol ships, it appears that they are all either Haixun or Haijian. I could be totally off here, but Haixun ships seemed to be for the Chinese Ministry of Transportation and Haijian ships are for the State Oceanographic Administration.

According to the State Oceanic Administration website, that MSA ship should be Haijian-75. It was launched on July 29th and will be delivered to south sea branch in the end of October. It is one of the 4 such 1000-ton class ships that HP shipyard is building for the south sea branch. They are also building 2 1500-ton class ships (Haijian-15 is the first one) and 1 3000-ton class ship (Haijian-50). This is all part of China's effort to increase patrols in the South China Sea (or as other countries see it, an effort to dominate South China Sea).

Some of the ships currently in service:
Haijian-20

Haijian-83

Haijian-27

Usage of PLAN Aircraft Carrier

We see many articles in the West about PLAN's rapid growth and the possibilities of the future Aircraft Carriers. There have been a lot of questions in the west about how China might use the new hardware. If this recent OpEd on Global Times is any indication, the discussion on this has not finished in China either.

In this piece, he started off by saying that China currently does not have a battling US for sea control, nor will it have it in the future. And if US keeps regarding China as its enemy in the Pacific Ocean, then that will bring calamity to the world.

He says that overt usage of Chinese navy in solving regional territorial issues or teaching US a small lesson may bring a stronger sense of national strength in the short run, but would result in anti-Chinese sentiment across the world. It will only end up scaring the neighbors. So, the usage of aircraft carrier must be careful. He also mentions that China should use carriers to strengthen the nation's soft power through indirectly diffusing crisis around the world. China cannot achieve sea supremacy over US in the near future, not should it. It should increase national strength through all avenues. There is no reason for China not to have an aircraft carrier given its position as the only UN P5 nation to not have one. The question is how China can make the world feel more at ease about having carriers.

I think the most important part to note is that I really see no desire in Chinese public or even in the military for worldwide domination. Over the past few years, it is sensing a rapid growth in its national stature, so it is acting more boldly on international issues rather than being withdrawn. China has always claimed South China Sea as part of its sovereignty. It is only voicing these claims more loudly now that it is the world's second largest economy.

Latest F-22P news

I will first start off by posting some recent pictures of F-22P. The first two are pictures of 253 (the 3rd unit of F-22P) in sea trials. And the last picture is of the 4th unit of F-22P that is currently under construction in Karachi.




And I also have seen a recent article that interviewed Captain Mirza Foad Amin Baig, who is the Commanding Officer of PNS Zulfiqar. Since I'm not sure about whether I'm allowed to post the article on here, I will just give a detailed summary in points:

• The First F-22P (PNS Zulfiqar No. 251) was commissioned on 30th July 2009. It arrived in Karachi on 13 September and was inducted into the PN fleet on 19 September.
  
• They tested the sensors + weapons of 251, including successful firing of C-802
  
• F-22P is 3,144 tonnes and 123.4 m long -> larger than what we thought and larger than Jiangwei class
  
• ASuW uses 8 C-802 missiles, Z-9EC for OTH targeting and Chinese version of AK-176M main gun
  
• ASW consists of ET-52C 324mm torpedo tubes, RDC-32 rocket launchers and Echo Type 5 hull mounted sonar
  
• Close in air defense with FM-90N SAM, AK-176M + 2 export version of Type 730 CIWS
  
• Combat system is based on Chinese ZKJ-3C
  
• EW suite uses Chinese RWD-8 intercept system and a NJ8I-3 jammer
  
• Non-FCR Sensors include a SUR-17 air-surveillence radar, an SR-60 air/surface search radar and a Kelvin-Hughes 2007 navigation radar
  
• Uses CODAD propulsion with two Tognum MTU 12V 1163 TB 83 diesel engines
  
• Top speed of 28+ knots + range of 6000+ nm at 18 knots
  
• Core crew is 188 with capacity for 212
  

From all report, it looks like PN is quite satisfied with the F-22Ps thus far. I have not kept up with PN current effort in buying an OHP. Last I heard, they were in the process of getting one. I do believe there have already been much talk regarding to PN buying 4 more frigates of China. The only question is what will be on that ship.

Peace Mission 2010

Looks like the military exercise between Shanghai Cooperation Organization is becoming an annual occurrence instead of bi-annual.

According to rian, the next one will be this September. Previously, Peace Mission had taken place in 2005, 2007 and 2009. The article is as follows:

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) will conduct a series of anti-terror drills from September 9 - 25 in Kazakhstan, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday.

The exercise, codenamed Peace Mission 2010, will be held at the Matybulak base near the town of Gvardeisky with each of the SCO member states (China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) contributing at least one operational-tactical group.

Iran, India, Mongolia and Pakistan have observer status in the organization.

The drills will test the interoperability of the SCO armed forces in rendering assistance to a member state involved in an internal armed conflict or subjected to a mass terrorist attack.

In many ways, these exercises have come full circle. In 2005, it involved 10,000 soldiers and was widely reported by different media circles. At that time, Russians were using the exercise as an opportunity to show off new hardware to export to China. Russians also showed themselves to be much better than PLA in all of the different missions. As time went on, PLA have improved a lot in the past 2 exercises, but there is a still a large gap between the operational capability of the two forces. Much of that is due to the less intensive and realistic training method of PLA. The Russians have had recent ground combats, so they have used those live combat experience to develop training procedure and ROE that is much more effective than that of PLA. Even as late as 2009, PLA commanders commented that they were impressed with Russian troops strictness in cleaning and maintaining equipments and their ability to fly and enter battle zones in their helicopter at much lower altitude.

J-15 finally appearing?

We've received the first good clear picture of what appears to be J-15, the naval fighter jet to be used on future aircraft carriers.


On a side note, it looks like PLAN's aviation arm is going to be taking some J-10s, although I doubt those will actually be naval fighters.

071 deploying to Aden officially

According to this Xinhua article, China will be deploying 998, 170 and 887 to Gulf of Aden. It also reports that the flotilla will have more than 1,000 personnel, including Navy special forces troops. We also find out that 998's displacement is 18,500 tonnes in its mission configuration. It should be not a surprise that 998 is going on this mission. China has been sending all of its new naval toys out there. They waited until the LCAC is in service before sending 998 on this mission. The more interesting part are the photos that came out.

First, we have a really nice detailed diagram of 998. It looks like the well deck can only hold one LCAC, but it will also hold a couple of high speed patrol boat. I presume that these will all be used against the pirates. It also looks like the hangar is large enough to hold 4 Z-8s (assuming they do 2 side by side on top of 2 front and back). The Z-8s accompanying 998 were specially fitted with gun pods to assist in attacking pirates.

Here are some photos of the LCAC from the same magazine. Looks like the one traveling to Aden will be 3320. There is also a nice photo of LCAC going at high speed.



A picture of the well deck with patrol boat.

Finally, more pictures of 998 going on this mission.




Anyway, good to see we are finally getting more details on this ship.