P 15 A Kolkatha Vs Type 52 D Luyang III

P 15 A Kolkatha Vs Type 52 D Luyang III

      

India's most efficient and finest front line Destroyer is the P 15A Kolkatha Class destroyers, under this program Navy will build three Destroyers, China also build such good front line Destroyers under their Type 52 Destroyer Program, lets have a break and discuss about the destroyers line by line about it's performance and fighting capability, since both fall on same Category Comparison become easier to Judge Who is better,

Size and Weight

   Both Type 52D and P 15 A shares same tonnage, both having displacement of about 7500 tonnage, where upto 100 to 500 Tons can be increased are decreased depend upon the Mission package and other accessories fitted/removed in the  Destroyer,

    The Kolkatha has slight bigger in length it's nearly 10 meters more longer than the Type 52 D, because of the sleek design the ship can attain more faster, less visibility in Radar and more maneuverable than the Type 52 D, but that won't give any good scores to the P 15 A,

     Both Ship can attain more than 30 knots, But the P15 A hold 325 crews and Soldiers compared to the 280 crew in the Type 52 D, makes the Kolkatha better, because the Kolkatha can carry good number of Combat Soldiers compared to the Type 52 D.

P 17 A vs Type 52 D = 9.5 vs 9

Propulsion

       The Chinese uses the Upgraded Ukrainian made  Engines GT25000 Gas Turbine, in Chinese It named as QC 280, the Type 52 D has two such engines each produces 28 MW power to run the mega propeller and gives power supply to the Ship, the Engine is re moded Ukrainian Engines but which runs smoothly without making any problems, so the reliability of the Main engine gives Type 52D good in combat deployment, also the Engines installed in previous Destroyer shows no problems, makes the Reliable and more economic to the Chinese Navy.

     The Indian P 15 A uses the imported Ukrainian Zorya Engines each engines deliver 28+28 MW power to the Ship, the Zorya is the modern Ship engine produced by the Ukrainian Company, most Russian and South Asian Navy's using it to powers their Front line warships, 

In comparison Both Engines get good and equal marks.

P 17 A vs Type 52 D = 9.5 vs 9.5

Radar System

     The Chinese uses the upgraded Type 348 AESA Radar as it's primary Fire control Radar in the Ships, the New Radar is completely upgraded from previous Type 348 Radars. with improved cooling features and more Transmitter and receiver array's. actually the Radar is an cloned version of Ukrainian Kvant Radar, the original Radar has the Range of 160 kilometers only, But it's believed the  Chinese upgrade makes the Radar boosted Range of some 50 to 100 Kilometers, So in most Chances the Chinese Type 348 can't exceeds the Range of some 250 kilometers.

     The P 15 A uses the most powerful modern advanced MF STAR multi functional AESA Radar, which have range of more than 250 kilometers for  all kind of Aerial and surface Targets, while most Naval and Radar experts compares the MF STAR with the most advanced American AN SPY 1 D Radar, it's believed the MF STAR is one of the modern Radar used in the world except the US Navy.

     India uses the Thales LW 08 Air search radar for Surveillance and providing Target information to the main fire control Radar, The Radar also comes with the IFF - Identification of Friend or Foe algorithms which makes the Operator work faster by assigning friendlies to attack enemy Targets. the Thales LW 08 has a Range of 200 kilometers for big size Targets like Fighter Jets and Bomber planes, and 100 km range to detect low observable cruise and Anti shipping missiles.

     The Chinese uses cloned version of vintage Radar systems for primary uses, makes the reliability and performance of the system during dense electromagnetic situations, the Radar is not completely reliable. thus the P 15 gets more points than the Type 52 D.

      Also the Israeli French Indian Radar and Processing systems completely thwart the Chinese cloned Sensor and processing systems.  

P 17 A vs Type 52 D = 10 vs 4

Weapons

Offensive

     Naval Artillery is not the prime mission of Destroyer, but during peacetime deployments, the Naval Gun is the best options to use, the Indians uses the world class oto melara SRGM which is a 73 mm Gun, while the Chinese uses the bigger caliber of 130mm dual barrel reverse engineered AK 130 Gun, that makes a slight advantage and also slight disadvantage to the Chinese highly effective low rate of power and Short Range, But Indian 73 mm has less effective but improved fire rate and longer range, so one each gets one minus and one plus points.

     The Chinese used combination of Long and Short Range Anti Shipping missiles, the 32 VLS assigned for this role makes the Destroyer perfect armed wagon, the CJ 10 Anti ship cruise missile is a Sub sonic Anti shipping missile, can able to strike both Land and ship Targets. with the Half ton warhead, the Missile scores 100 points by destroying the Target completely, with the Guidance of INS and Satellites the Chinese can strike targets beyond 1000 kilometers without any problems, gives the Type 52 D more score,

     Another Short Range sea skimming Missile the C 803, the Anti ship missile having range of some 200 kilometers, having 200 kg of HE or Armour piercing warhead,

     But India have only 16 VLS cells to launch it's more powerful Brahmos Cruise missile, which is deadlier and the Current and future Chinese Technology have no good interceptors to intercept the Brahmos Cruse missile, thus gives a upper hand, but the Range is capped upto 300kilometers. the Brahmos is a good missile it uses the Sea skimming method to travel, makes the Chinese Radar's blind.

with combination of long and short Range Chinese Type 52 D gets upper hand in this point.

P 17 A vs Type 52 D = 7 vs 8

Defensive

     The Chinese Destroyer comes with variety of good SAM system. the Chinese uses 16 or 32  VLS Cells to launch it's long range HQ 9 SAM missile to intercept long range Targets mostly cruise missiles and Fighter Aircrafts, HQ 9 has the range of more than 100 kilometers , the HQ 9 based on the Russian S 300 SAM,

    Another 16 or 8 VLS cells allocated to launch quad packed QR SAM's. means those 16 VLS can accommodate 16x3 ship launched PL 12 QR SAM's, which can intercept low flying and Sea skimming missiles at closest ranges, 

       It also having 24 ready to fire Rolling Airframe missile type CIWS. thus gives another short Range interception advantage, makes the Type 52 D better in defensive parameters.

    The Chinese have single cannon based CIWS 30mm system, which gives last line of defensive support to the Ship whose Range is 3 kilometers.

      The Four Variety of Air defense system gives the Type 52 D allows to combat Heavily powered enemy flotilla's.

     But for P 15 A, It uses 32 VLS cells to launch the newer generation advanced long Range Barak 8 SAM, which is jointly developed by the Indians and Israeli's, series of Tests shows the missile is more powerful, when engaging targets, also scored good points by Chasing and Intercepting Sea skimming missile, the Primary secondary and all defensive based on the Barak 8 only.   

      India also has four AK 630 30 mm cannon for CIWS, these four situated in well balanced area gives cover to the Destroyer from all sides.

      Both have same kind of Anti torpedo charges like RBU 6000, while the Kolkatha gets more points since it's having longer range and larger quantity.

P 17 A vs Type 52 D = 8 vs 9.5

SONAR.

    The Kolkatha uses the Desi made HUMSA NG main sonar fitted in the Ship's bow, also having desi made Towed array sonar, used to detect Submarines from Stand off distance, both were designed and developed by BEL with foreign assistance,

     The details about the Type 52 D's sonar informations unavailable, mostly they too uses their own Sonar, and Towed array Sonar, so both shares same Points.

Heli Borne ASW Warfare

     It's believed that China uses the modified Z 9 Ship borne multi purpose Naval Helicopters or Russian Made Ka 27 or the Chinese Z 18 ASW Helicopters, Here the Ka 27 and the Z 18 only have the Heli borne sonar system,

     India plans to use the most advanced US Made  S 70 B Naval ASW Helicopters, on board the P15 A, which is currently the most advanced ASW  Helicopter, the P15 A 's deck can accommodate two medium size Helicopters in It's hanger, so It's possible to use two S 70 B and any other utility Helicopters on board the  P 15 A, which not gives any boost to the P 15 A during combats.

P 17 A vs Type 52 D = 9.5 vs  6

     By overall performance the P 15 A series is best in Radar and processing systems with proven missile systems, while the Type 52 D is best in defensive and offensive fire power.

Overall score P 17 A gets 88 marks and Type 52 D gets 73 Marks out of 100.