Picture of the PLA Navy Sort 054A guided missile frigate Ningde Picture: China Navy Bugle
State media launched footage on Saturday exhibiting the newest coaching scenes of the Sort 054A guided missile frigate Ningde, marking its official commissioning into the Chinese language Individuals’s Liberation Military (PLA) Navy.
The vessel inherits the hull quantity 510 from its predecessor, a smaller Sort 056 guided missile corvette additionally named Ningde.
Lately, the Ningde, assigned to a frigate flotilla beneath the PLA Japanese Theater Command, shaped a job group with a number of vessels to conduct combat-oriented coaching, testing command coordination and emergency response capabilities whereas accelerating fight readiness era, in accordance with the army channel of state broadcaster CCTV Information.
As threats emerged from each sea and air, radar stations rapidly locked onto targets and reported the tactical state of affairs. Weapons techniques ready for engagement. Following the commander’s order, the primary and secondary weapons opened fireplace in succession, delivering intensive strikes and neutralizing the simulated threats, the report mentioned.
Amid rolling waves, the vessel performed replenishment drills. Subsequently, the Ningde centered on specialised coaching in areas together with helicopter takeoffs and landings and injury management, additional honing its fight abilities, mentioned the report.
The brand new Ningde has drawn consideration from Chinese language army fans, who remarked that the PLA Navy’s modernization is transferring at an astonishing tempo, because the earlier Sort 056 Ningde had been in service for less than a couple of decade, in accordance with Shanghai Observer.
The continued manufacturing and improve of the Sort 054A have successfully crammed the hole in coastal and offshore fight capabilities, offering the navy with a lot of cost-effective platforms for each near-sea and far-sea operations, serving to keep a sustained fight readiness, Zhang Junshe, a Chinese language army affairs knowledgeable, instructed the International Occasions on Sunday.
Mass manufacturing has lowered unit procurement and upkeep prices, standardized coaching, logistics and command techniques, and considerably improved the general effectivity of the Navy’s tools system, Zhang mentioned.
The Sort 054A guided missile frigate belongs to the PLA Navy’s most quite a few and cost-effective medium-sized frigate program of the previous twenty years, typically described as a “maritime multi-role platform.”
With the addition of the Ningde, the Sort 054A fleet has now reached 46 vessels, Zhang mentioned.
The Sort 054A is supplied with 3D radar, low-altitude gap-filling radar and a towed array sonar system, forming a three-dimensional detection community protecting sea, air and underwater domains. With a spread of 4,000 nautical miles, it’s suited to long-duration far-sea missions and possesses sturdy built-in fight capabilities in coastal and offshore waters, in addition to far-sea escort capabilities. Its weapon techniques are nicely balanced by means of successive upgrades, Zhang mentioned.
In January 2026, CCTV introduced a newly upgraded model of Sort 054A frigates.
In contrast with the unique design, the upgraded model options an prolonged flight deck higher suited to new shipborne helicopters, addressing a earlier shortfall in aviation-based anti-submarine warfare. The principle gun has additionally been upgraded to a 100mm caliber, much like that on the Sort 054B, with improved radar vary and accuracy.
PLA Navy has developed the Sort 054B frigate as a next-generation successor to the Sort 054A.
On January 22, 2025, the lead ship of the Sort 054B, Luohe, was commissioned at a naval port in Qingdao, East China’s Shandong Province, adopted by the second ship, Qinzhou, in March, reported CCTV.
The Sort 054B frigate displaces roughly 5,000 tons and contains a new propulsion system, stealth design, built-in mast and superior multi-functional vertical launch system able to firing varied missile sorts. It has achieved breakthroughs in stealth expertise, fight command techniques and fireplace management integration, mentioned the CCTV report.
Regardless of this, China continues to improve and construct the Sort 054A frigate. Zhang mentioned that the Sort 054A and Sort 054B kind a transparent “high-low combine, mission complement” construction.
The Sort 054B is positioned as a bigger far-sea vessel, primarily tasked with core escort and high-end confrontation missions in far-sea formations. The Sort 054A serves as the primary coastal and offshore fight pressure and a supplementary far-sea asset, accountable for near-sea protection, routine patrols, anti-submarine warfare in offshore waters, and escort missions for far-sea formations. This avoids tools homogenization and allows environment friendly synergy, Zhang mentioned.
The Sort 054A options mature expertise, steady manufacturing traces, quick building and excessive cost-effectiveness, enabling speedy mass deployment at comparatively low value. In the meantime, the Sort 054B, as a brand new mannequin, nonetheless comes with the next price ticket.
Given the Navy’s steady demand for extra vessels, continued building of the Sort 054A rapidly fills the coastal and offshore functionality hole, whereas the Sort 054B step by step replaces some older vessels and enhances far-sea built-in fight capabilities, Zhang famous.
