Shipbucket

Interesting, I'll try to remember

acelanceloet wrote: ↑September 23rd, 2020, 8:10 am Did they not upgrade her launcher to fire SM-2 by 2018?

Nope. They only had CSIST studying the repair/replacement of the existing stock of SM-1MR's rocket motors since OEM support for the missile ends this year.

They are so far placing all their bets on Project Zhen Hai (new GP frigates armed with the HK-III missile) and, as of this moment, their interim plan between the SM-1MR and the HK-III is essentially the Kidd class DDGs with RIM-66K.

acelanceloet wrote: ↑September 23rd, 2020, 8:10 am I think, looking at the pics, that they also did some modifications on the funnels with some larger exhaust pipes.

*Banging head*

erik_t wrote: ↑September 23rd, 2020, 2:02 pm As far as I'm aware, no Mk 13 has ever been fitted with SM-2.

The California class cruisers received NTU. Their Mk13 launchers might have been modified as well.

Hope my sense of scale isn't too awful this time......



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Tian Dan is the eighth and last vessel of the Cheng Kung class.

She was originally intended to be an advanced air defense development featuring the forerunner of the AN/SPY-1F radar, but as the materials had already been set aside for her despite the cancellation of this development, she was ultimately ordered to the same specification as the preceding ships (her Mk13 launcher is, IIRC, bought from the mothballed stock in the US).

This is also why she, unlike the rest of her class, doesn't have the 40mm L70 guns.

EDIT: Both ships have their Phalanx guns upgraded to the Block 1A.

Reference HERE and HERE (taken in 2019, but by 2019 there's already talk of upgrading all of the ROCN's Phalanx to Block 1B, so those 1A likely aren't a recent addition)