I’ve followed the 052s since they came out. The two classes came out of the blue. No intelligence that either class existed when the 168-171 came out in photos.

There is nothing that said the original plans had 168 and 169 as PAR carriers. There is nothing that indicates that one class was a rush job over the other or all four were laid out to be the same.

All we know of the two classes are from pictures. The hulls are not exactly alike and the 052Cs has larger tonnage. If the original plan for all four is the 052C’s then the superstructure of the 052B would be the same. There is no way to install a 360 coverage PAR on the 052Bs as they are now.

China hasn’t built any more than two DDGs of the same variant since the Ludas. They build in small increments. The 052Bs are obviously optimized for anti-surface.

But if you do have literature that said the 052Bs should have PAR then it would major news indeed. Post it here. I would be extremely interested in looking at it. Thanks.

It’s a bit hard for me to find these now. I am the kind that reads things, but don;t keep them. But I was told by very well informed sources (the type that tells you everything 3 month before you see a pic of)on Chinese BBS that this is the case. The construction of the 052Bs were suspended and the entire superstructure was redesigned.

Deploy the RIF system? There is no indication what so ever that RIF will be used on PLAN ships to this date. The rumoured 051C is just that, a rumour. Seems PLA is very happy with HQ-9 at least, PLAN’s view on HHQ-9 as of yet is to be seen.
And of China moving away from indeginous SAM? Perhap you will change your mind once HHQ-16 also comes online along with HHQ-9. The only ships using russian SAMs are the Sovs and the two 052Bs after all.

Crob: You should hav ealso put here the other bit of info this guy wrote. I found that the most interesting as he is saying that with the max rate 31d/s, while perfromed under speed of 0.5M, J-10 will lose speed rapidly, and maintain speed if speed over 0.5M. Also interesting is how he claim that with a 22d/s rate, the J-10 can increase its speed while performing the turn.

Got my copy… must say, it is not a memory hog, which is a relief. Looks decent even on my MX420. The FPS only goes down noticibly when approaching Pearl Harbour, and then goes back to normal again.

People on chinese board with good information say that this particular boat is an one-off demonstrator… however, if it works, not only more will be built but a larger corvette/frigate of the same hull type which they say had been designed will get the go ahead as well and will be built.

But when they do, it is always China Air Force. You could see it also on the official PLAAF pilot watches as well.

Now you mention it GD, I do remember the J-12 pic, beautiful. But I am pretty sure the PLAN ships CGIs are done mostly by 炎黄后人, of CJDBY, and 一鹰 of WARSKY.
However, it is pretty sad to note that in June this year, 炎黄后人was diagnosed with terminal cancer… His last pics were seen about 1-2 month ago… Nothing since then…