CNS Type 053H3 (Jiangwei II)

History of central nervous system type 053H3 (Jiangwei II)

The Type 053 family frigate is a Chinese-built surface warship for the People's Liberation Army Navy's surface forces and some foreign operators. They entered service in 1974 with a total of 53 ships.

Two subclasses of this design eventually emerged as Type 053H2G and Type 053H3, the former recognized by NATO as "Jiangwei I" and the latter as "Jiangwei II". Multi-role abilities were added in the first subclass, with extended abilities in subsequent forms.

The construction of the Type 053H3 ships, the focus of this article, was built between 1996 and 2005 and followed the disappointing Type 053H2 ships, which were supposed to be the successors of the earlier Type 053 ships.

Jiangwei II has a displacement of 2,250 tons under standard load, which can be increased to nearly 2,400 tons at full load. Dimensions include a barrel length of 367.4 feet, a beam of 40.7 feet, and a draft of 14 feetmaking her slightly larger than her Jiangwei Class I counterpart. Installed power is a combined diesel and diesel unit (CODAD) that increases operating efficiency depending on the action required - normal cruising or high-speed cruising.

There are 2 18E190VA diesels with 23,600 hp and 2 MTU (Germany) diesels with 8,715 hp. Under ideal conditions, the maximum speed can reach 28 knots, and the range can reach 5000 nautical miles.

There are 168 crew members on board. The ship is equipped with Type 360 ??surface search radar, Type 517H-1 two-dimensional long-range air search radar and Type 345 artillery direction radar. 2 x Racal RM-1290 units for navigation.

A Radar Warning Receiver (RWR) and Electronic Jammer are standard equipment. Above the stern is the helideck and full-service hangar, allowing the vessel to take off and fly a medium Navy helicopter (usually a Harbin Z-9C - detailed elsewhere on this site).

The weapon is centered on 8 x YJ-83 surface-to-surface missiles housed in two 4-cell launchers. There is also a single 8-cell HQ-7 missile unit (SAM) (HG-7 is the Chinese version of the French R330 "Sea Crotale" weapon). A significant upgrade to Jiangwei I-class ships, the HQ-7 improves upon the original HQ-61B SAM weapon system.

In addition to this missile weapon, there are more traditional projectile drive systems such as the PJ33A 100mm twin-gun deck gun and the 4 x 37mm Type 76A twin-gun (AA) anti-aircraft machine gun. The ship also carries 2 triple-barrel torpedo launchers, 2 deep-water charge racks, and 2 6-barrel Type 3200 Anti-Submarine Rocket (ASROC) launchers.

14 ships built to Jiangwei II standards; ten for the Chinese Navy and four for the Pakistan Navy. China's first ship in service was CNNC Lianyungang (522), built by Hudong, launched in October 1997, and officially commissioned in January 1998.

The ten PLAAN ships of the Chinese fleet are all active in the Chinese fleet, which is divided into the Baltic Fleet, the North Sea Fleet and the South China Sea Fleet. The last ship, CNS Mianyang (528), was commissioned in April 2005.

The warships began a mid-term upgrade (MLU) program sometime in 2015 to maintain their long-term viability. Improvements were made to radar and electronic warfare, and more advanced missiles and digitally guided weapons were introduced.

The four warships built for Pakistan were named Zulfiquar (251), Shamsheer (252), Saif (253) and Aslat (254).

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