Haiqing class submarine chaser

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Unlike western navies, the People's Liberation Army Navy does not have dedicated patrol boats / craft in its inventory, instead, a variety of naval vessels ranged from minesweepers to fast attack craft are deployed for patrol duties. 20 Haiqing class submarine chaser / patrol boat is one of such Chinese designs and it is a cross between gunboats and the submarine chaser based on Type 037 (Hainan class). These boats were first built by the Qiuxin Shipyard of Shanghai, and later by Huangpu and Qingdao shipyards. There is some disagreement over the type designation of this class, some sources claim it is Type 037I, while others claim it is Type 037IS.

The vessel is armed with two 6-tubed anti-submarine mortar launchers. Early variant Haiqing Class are fitted with two manually operated twin-barrel 37 mm guns, but they are replaced by two automatic 37 mm guns on the later variants. They also have various other mounted heavy machine guns for patrol duty. These weapons focus on a general-purpose patrol boat, with only a limited anti-submarine capability.

[edit] Specifications

• Displacement: 478 t
• Length: 62.8 m
• Beam: 7.2 m
• Draft: 2.4 m
• Speed: 28 kt
• Range: 1,300 nm @ 15 kt
• Propulsion: 4 Chinese PR 230ZC diesel engines @ 4,000 hp with 4 shafts
• Complement: 71
• Armament:
  • Guns: 4 Type 76A 37 mm gun (II x 2) and 4 Type 69 14.5 mm heavy machine guns (II x 2)
  • ASW: 1 Type 87 6-tubed ASW mortar
• Radars: 1 Type 723 surface search radar
• Sonar: Chinese copy of French Thomson-Sintra medium frequency SS-12 VDS