Assessing the Chinese Navy’s New 054B Frigate
A successor to the PLAN’s workhorse, the 054A, has been rumored for a decade. Now it’s finally here.
By Rick Joe
September 11, 2023

The People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN)’s most well recognized workhorse over the last decade and a half has been the 054A frigate: a multirole, blue water capable surface combatant displacing just over 4,000 tons at full load. The first 054A was launched in 2006 and entered service in 2008. As of this writing in 2023, 40 054As have been built for the PLAN, with the final hulls to enter service in the immediate future.

When it emerged, the 054A class was one of the PLAN’s first classes of domestic surface combatant with a vertical launch system for missiles, and equipped with a capable sensor, weapons, and combat management suite. It was the first surface combatant with those features that entered mass production in the modern era. However, many of the 054A’s key subsystems were far from cutting edge for the Chinese military industry at the time (let alone globally), with its radar, propulsion, and weapons systems being relatively conservative, and derived from relatively mature and known systems rather than utilizing the most leading-edge technology available. This was reasonable, as the 054A was intended as a cost-effective but capable warship, and the Chinese industry needed time to further advance and consolidate key technologies and mitigate risks.

Rumors of a successor frigate class to the 054A began circulating as far back as the early 2010s; however, it was never fully clear what such a frigate would entail. An increased displacement, and/or more capable sensors and weapons, were all floated as likely upgrades, but the extent of those advancements was unknown. Additionally, during the 2010s there was never a clear statement through the PLA-watching grapevine as to when a successor frigate would be expected. Even the name of such a successor frigate was not clearly known – 054B was suggested, as well as 057.

However in the early 2020s, the grapevine buzzed with more confident rumors that the new successor frigate would be dubbed 054B, and would emerge in the very near future. And thus, during the past year from late 2022 to now, construction progress on the first two 054B hulls at Hudong shipyard and Huangpu shipyard (the two yards that built all prior 054A frigates) has been steadily tracked. Hudong had the distinction of launching the first 054B hull in late August 2023, and Huangpu is expected to launch its first 054B in coming months or weeks as well. Accounting for a fitting out period of 12 months prior to sea trials, and a sea trial period of between 6-12 months, the first 054B may enter service sometime in 2025.

This article will review the known and unknown characteristics of 054B, as well as consider the potential significance of this ship for the PLAN going forwards. https://thediplomat.com/2023/09/assessi ... b-frigate/