On January 22, 2025, an official ceremony was held in Qingdao to commission the lead frigate Luohe (545) of the new project 054B (NATO designation Jiangkai III class) into the Northern Fleet of the Naval Forces of the People's Liberation Army of China. The ship was built in Shanghai by Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding (Group) Co., Ltd., a part of the Chinese state shipbuilding corporation China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC).
The ceremony of commissioning the lead frigate "Luohe" (side number "545") of the new project 054B into the Northern Fleet of the PLA Navy. Qingdao, 01/22/2025 (c) Chinese social media
Construction of the lead frigate "Lohe" of the new project 054B was started in Shanghai in 2022, launching was carried out on August 26, 2023 and the ship first went to sea for factory sea trials on January 15, 2024.
Currently, the second frigate of the 054B project, named Qinzhou (Qinzhou, 钦ی, tail number "555"), which was built by the Huangpu Wenchong Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. of the CSSC Corporation in Guangzhou, is in the testing phase. It was launched on October 29, 2023 and put to the test in the fall of 2024. Presumably, it should become part of the PLA Navy's Southern Fleet.
The 054B project is a completely new ship project, significantly different from the Project 054A frigates (and its modification 054AG) previously built for the PLA Navy. From January 2008 to November 2023, 40 Project 054A frigates were commissioned into the PLA Navy, and four more frigates were built for the Pakistani Navy. Currently, up to ten frigates of the modified 054AG project (five of which were launched in 2024) are in various stages of construction at Chinese shipyards for the PLA Navy. Apparently, serial construction of Project 054B frigates for the Chinese fleet will begin based on the results of testing and trial operation of the first two ships.
According to official Chinese data, the frigate of project 054B has a displacement of "about 5,000 tons" (presumably standard), thus the total displacement is estimated at 5,700 tons, the length of the ship is 150 m, and the width is 16.8 m (compared to 4,100 tons of full displacement, 134 m long and 16 m wide for the frigate of project 054A). The main power plant of the 054V frigate, like its predecessor, is purely diesel, but includes four new CS16V27 diesel engines with a maximum output of 9760 hp each (at 1066 rpm). The full speed is stated to be "over 28 knots".
The main armament of the Project 054B frigate includes eight launchers of subsonic YJ-83 anti-ship missiles and a modified HHQ-16 medium-range anti-aircraft missile system (a clone of the Russian Shtil-1 air defense system) with a 32-charge vertical launcher H/AKJ-16 with HQ-16 anti-aircraft guided missiles launched from it (missile clones 9M317 series) and Yu-8 anti-submarine guided missiles. The modified HHQ-16 air defense missile system on the 054B frigate uses panel AFARS on an integrated mast (instead of copies of the MR-90 radar), and anti-aircraft missiles with an active radar homing head (analogues of the 9M317A missiles) are presumably introduced into the complex. The Project 054B frigate also has a 24-round HQ-10 short-range anti-aircraft missile launcher with infrared homing missiles, a 100 mm H/PJ-87 automatic universal artillery system, one 11-barrel 30 mm H/PJ-11 anti-aircraft artillery self-defense system, two 324 mm three-tube type 7424 torpedo tubes for anti-submarine torpedoes. The new Z-20F anti-submarine helicopter is permanently based in the hangar.
The electronic armament of the Project 054B frigate includes a new multifunctional H/LJQ-368 general detection radar with a rotating antenna with S- and X-band AFAR, two navigation radars, an artillery fire control radar, two electron-optical systems, and an integrated H/RJZ-726 electronic warfare system. The ship has two 24-charge launchers of the H/RJZ-726-4A jamming system. The parameters of the ship's sonar armament are unknown.
The lead Chinese frigate "Luohe" (Luohe, 漯河, tail number "545") of the new project 054B is being tested (c) official photo of the PLA Navy
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The ceremony of commissioning the lead frigate "Luohe" (side number "545") of the new project 054B into the Northern Fleet of the PLA Navy. Qingdao, 01/22/2025 (c) Chinese social media
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