If i remember correctly, only Ticos carry spq9B. Burkes have no such radar.

052c is more akin to tico that way, as it does have a fast turning high resolution radar for horizon search, on top of its mast.

type 45, in my opinion, has merged the roles of all of those radars (almost even the EW radar, as well, except in saturation attack situations where SAMPSON couldn’t track close targets and do long range scanning at the same time as efficiently as RN wanted. That is why that L-band radar is there.) in a single radar sitting high up. It is one of the best aspects of Type 45 design.

its definitely a new variant, that much is clear from those images. whether it is going to be called 052d or 052c++ or whatever, that is beside the point.

Gun mount is visibly different, even if the gun inside it is the same. (which we dont know if it is. circumstantial evidence points to a new 130mm gun, but that can’t be confirmed from these images)

Upper part of the superstructure is different, one can see the geometry of command bridge is different – there are different number of windows per side of the superstructure, different shape of windows is also evident.

Radar arrays are different – one can tell new ones are slightly bigger and the cover has lost the curve, it is now flat.

http://chinese-military-aviation.blogspot.com/

blogspot version is supposedly only temporary, until the site gets back on its feet.

how frequent are these regular drydock visits? how much time does it have now before next refurbishment?

i remember reading that quadpacking will be used on existing platforms, to maximize space. meaning type 23 and type 45. type 26, however, will use simpler and cheaper, one missile per cell launchers.

Also note the pretty large VLS section near the exhaust. All in all it may point to 48 sea ceptors. 96 would be unrealistically too many, really.

is there anywhere a breakdown of what planes will comprise those 600 combat planes? As i can’t find any combination that would reach that many in 2020. Unless modernization of existing planes is included in that number or the definition of combat plane is stretched so it includes the likes of yak130, various armed uavs and what not.

su34 is already paced for production until 2020 – it is said there will be 92 more or at most 108 more units until then. Su35 is hoped to get to 48 until 2015, (though that may be slipping) so realistically 120 until 2020. is the most we can expect. pakfa is usually quoted around 60 until 2020.

we have 24 mif29k and 30 su30. since more carriers certainly wont even be built by 2020 more mig29k are out of the question. more su30 are possible but as irkut itself said, they will stop producing combat planes by the end of the decade so realistically we will see maybe one more batch of 30 su30 and that is it.

So will the su25 production be restarted? with planned modernization of at least 80 more existing ones and plans for new plane to be produced from 2020 onwards that seems unlikely.

That leaves just the mig35. The combined number of those planes mentioned above is 350, so there would have to be 250 mig 35 produced by 2020 which is clearly an impossibility.

My guess is that modernized planes (such as mig31bm, su25sm, tu22m3m3 etc) are included in that figure of 600 combat planes, perhaps even yak130 are added (as those conceivably could be used in some combat roles) and that is how we got the 600 figure in the first place.

I counted some 545 new combat planes up until 2020. That gives production rate of some 68 planes per year until then.

GRanted, some of those figures in that article are assumptions. We dont know if extra mig29k will be ordered in the 2015-2020 period. Same with extra 30 or so su30s in the same period. And i see the extra mig35s as unsure thing. But rest of the orders seem pretty realistic. Even without these planes, that is still some 430 planes until 2020. That is still some 54 combat planes a year.

Realistically, i believe those are still unsustainable numbers in the long term – such production rates would suggest combat fleet of close to 2000 planes.

Like with the navy and army, it is a part of the temporary budget hike for the state rearmament programme until 2020. But it certainly makes any predictions for the true size of future ruaf fleet very imprecise. With the currently made planes (su34, su27sm3, mig29smt, mig31bm) that will last up until 2025 or perhaps even 2030 or beyond for some, and if we assume the same production rates – in 2030 ruaf could operate some 1150 combat planes (not counting the bombers).

That would be, however, best case scenario, numbers wise, as i dont believe the production rate would remain that high through the 2020s. Still, a dozen of pakfas and a dozen of attack/strike planes per year is a given minimum. With the odd carrier borne planes and what-not, I would say 30 a year is a safe total bet for a minimum yearly production rate – on average through that decade.

In that case, a combat fleet of some 900 planes (without bombers) seems possible. The average number between those two values would, of course, be some 1025 combat planes. and if we assume a 42 average production rate for a very long term case (30 plus 54 divided by 2) – on a 30 year life time projection of a plane in service – we might see some 1300 combat planes in service by 2040-2050 period.

Naturally, all this is guesswork and anything past 2020. is really a wild estimate not suitable for anything but wasting time on internet forums. 🙂