DDG 113 "Qingdao" |
|
| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Builders: | Hudong Shipyard |
| Operators: | People's Liberation Army Navy |
| Preceded by: | Type 051 |
| Succeeded by: | Type 051B |
| In service: | May 1994 |
| Completed: | 2 |
| Active: | Harbin Qingdao |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 4,800 tons |
| Length: | 144 m |
| Beam: | 16 m |
| Draught: | 5.1 m |
| Propulsion: | General Electric LM2500 gas turbinesCODOG 55,000 shp |
| Speed: | 31 knots |
| Range: | 5,000 miles |
| Complement: | 260 |
| Electronic warfare and decoys: |
2 x Type 726-4 122mm 24-tube decoy launchers installed on both sides of the forward bridge (After 2011 upgrade) |
| Armament: | 4 x 4 YJ-83 (C-803) anti-ship missiles 1 x 8-cell HQ-7 SAM (8+16 rounds) 1 x Type H/PJ33A dual 100 mm/56 dual purpose gun 2 x Triple Yu-7 torpedo tubes After the latest system upgrade in mid-2011: 2 x H/PJ12 (Type 730) 7-barrel 30 mm CIWS replaced 4 x Type H/PJ76A dual 37 mm AA guns 2 x Type 87 6-tube ASW rocket launchers replaced 2 x Type 75 12-tube ASW rocket launchers |
| Aircraft carried: | 2 helicopters: Harbin Z-9 or Kamov Ka-27 |
| Aviation facilities: | Single helicopter landing platform Two helicopter hangar Helicopter landing system |
The Type 052 Luhu-class was one of the first modern multi-role guided missile destroyers built by China. There are currently two units in active service with the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) with no plans of further construction of additional units.
Contents |
Designed by the China Warship Design Institute (formerly the Seventh Academy of the Ministry of National Defense), the ships were built at Jiangnan Shipyard. No.112 Harbin was the first Luhu destroyer followed by No.113 Qingdao. The chief designer is academician Mr. Pan Jingfu (潘镜芙). The class is said to be the first indigenous Chinese warship design approaching modern standards, a significant improvement over the earlier Luda class. The Luhu made extensive use of foreign technologies that were accessible to the PRC prior to the Tiananmen Square incident of 1989. These included French-made radars and fire-control systems and the General Electric LM2500 gas turbine engines from the US, two of which power each ship.
Even with incorporation of Western technology, the chronic lack of adequate ship-borne air defense system have had great impact on the PLAN operations. Equipped with a small number of surface-to-air missiles with visual-range only, and guns with limited range and performance, Chinese warships had historically limited their operations within the area covered by their land-based aircraft due to a lack of fleet defense capability. To rectify this trend, the Luhu destroyers (and the smaller Jiangwei class frigate) were fitted with the HQ-7 SAM that gives it much better air defense capability than any other previous Chinese design, though still limited to within visual range (WVR).
The HQ-7 SAM system is reported to be equipped with 8 ready to fire missiles, plus 16 stored in a semi-automatic reloader system. The same system is also used on the upgraded 051G Luda Destroyer.
In spite of the advances, the 052 Luhu Destroyer still suffers in some areas such as electronic warfare and electronic counter-measures.
The operational capability of the Luhu-class Destroyers has been called into question by naval analysts. Ship visits in 1997 allowed US Naval officers to board and inspect Luhu Destroyer No.112 Harbin and to take numerous photographs. Analysis of these photographs and reporting by officers present strongly suggested that the Luhu Destroyers were mainly intended as technology demonstration vessels rather than serious naval combatants. For example, the large amount of foreign-supplied equipment on-board was still labeled in the language of the country of origin; this was also the case with most of the on-board manuals and other documentation, calling into question the ability of the crew to operate efficiently under stressful circumstances when called upon to deal with equipment labeled in English, French, and Italian, as well as Chinese. Further, the various European systems installed were not originally designed to operate together and as a result were not well integrated; a problem the Chinese could not overcome owing to their lack of familiarity with the underlying technology.
The Chinese attempted to address these problems with the introduction of an improved Luhu design, the Luhai-class. This follow-on, essentially an enlarged Luhu, features some improved electronics from foreign suppliers as well as more advanced weapons. However, in some cases, the designers appear to have opted for less capable indigenous designs to ease the system integration issues suffered by the Luhu-class Destroyers. However, the PLAN was reportedly unhappy with the design of the Luhai-class Destroyers, and production ceased after a single unit was completed.