Type 065 Chengdu class frigates

Chinese PLAN (1955) – Chengdu, Guiyang, Gulin, Kunming

The Green Tea “Riga”

The 1956′ Chengdu class can be summup as the Chinese “Riga” class. The latter were the standards mass-built Soviet ASW frigates of the Soviet Navy. Although they were delivered at the same time than the four Gnevny (future Type 07 Anshan class destroyers), these frigates arrived from the Soviet big brother shipyards in “kit”, for local assembly. They were hardly equivalent to licence-built ships, based solely on blueprints. Anyway, these ships became the Type 01 Chengdu-class and made the bulk of the very small Chinese PLAN until the arrival of the Luda. In between other frigates will enter service, the Jiangnan class in 1967-69 and the Yintang class in 1973, the two being developments of the Riga hull. Even the later Jianghu mass-production class which spanned 1975-1993 were developments of the same original hull which basically endured the whole cold war for the Chinese the same way PLA’s Type 59 MBTs were declined into the Type 69/79 and 88 MBTs.

Finnish Hameenmaa, a mineleyer-converted Riga-Class in 1982, giving some idea of the Type 065.

Another Riga class, SKR-61 underway in 1970. Actual photos of the type 065 are really hard to find.

About the “Riga” class

As a foreworld, the Soviet “Riga” class (a NATO designation) was known in USSR as Storozhevoi Korabl (escort ship) Project 50 Gornostay (Ermine stoat). They were basically Soviet reinterpretation in the 1950s of the classic escort destroyers of WW2. The design was simple, rugged and sound, and as customary was produced from 1953 to 1959 to an extent of 69 vessels. It made perfectly sense to distribute these to Warsaw pact nations like East Germany, Bulgaria, Finland and a faithful Asian customer such as Indonesia. There was nothing revolutionary about these ships, which primary armament counted rapid-fire dual purpose guns 100 mm completed by AA an array of 57 and 37mm mounts, while ASW was limited to depth charges and two or three 533 mm torpedo tubes, some ships having a set of MBU 600 anti-submarine rocket launchers later replaced by two RBU 2500. They were easy to recoignise with their fluch deck, pointed prow and central superstructure, including the funnel. Speed, given the nature of submarines at that time, was not paramount, with just 28 knots (52 km/h; 32 mph), but range was, and these surprisingly NOT diesel-powered ships had a comfortable 1,950 nmi (3,610 km; 2,240 mi) range at 14 kn (26 km/h; 16 mph). In Soviet service the Riga were discarded in 1980s, whereas the Chinese Chengdu soldiered on for another decade.

Picture from E-Bay – model kit

Specifics of the Chengdu class

In their new denomination they became the Type 6601 (Chengdu class) these kits were assembled by the Huangpu Shipyard in Guangzhou, and Hudong Shipyard in Shanghai from 1955 to 1958. But soon problems appeared, to start with finding an appropriate power source for these frigates. The Riga class had a TV9 steam turbine the Chinese were incapable of replicating, and at the same time this was a fuel-hungry unit they found unsuitable for their needs. Therefore rather than to start again from the TB-8 and TB-9 models China was currently cloning (with some difficulties), engineers choosed the simpler and proven 37D diesel 9ED743/76 available at that time and already manufactured locally for the Chinese “Whiskey” class submarines. However this power unit was incapable of doing reverse speed, but the 37DR diesel was. The 37D also had a rather low power rate, end performances risked to be weaker than the original Riga. Eventualy the 9EDZ43/76 was chosen for the Type 065. Later on, cloning the 37DR engine proved impossible. To house the massive 9EDZ43/76 PLAN engineers had to split-level the deck for 3/4 of the length. Other improvements concerned the propellers, and tests shows the new vessels were able to reach 21.5 knots.

Aerial view of the Riga class, giving some idea of the Chengdu initial design