ChinaType 054A Jiangkai II-class guided-missile frigates (FFGs), the most advanced ships of their type in the PLAN inventory. These FFGs are now entering service. GlobalSecurity.org projects that 12 Jiangkais will be in service by this year, 22 by 2015. The surface fleet clearly is not stagnating despite the halt in production of top-end combatants.
China has been pouring resources into refurbishing the decommissioned Soviet aircraft carrier Varyag, most likely as a training platform for naval aviators. The Varyag was reportedly completed without a propulsion plant and certainly suffered from years of neglect. Correcting such deficiencies consumes time, effort, and resources that might otherwise have gone into additional surface warships.
China's on-and-off procurement process. Carrier construction is an enormous undertaking, and one that Chinese shipwrights have never before attempted. It is not at all surprising that the pace of manufacturing certain ship types would slacken to make way for high-profile projects like aircraft carriers.
Furthermore, the pause in destroyer construction would conform to the PLAN's history of ‘fleet experimentation.
Chinese Navy the leisure to build small batches of ships of different configurations, take them to sea, evaluate their performance, and incorporate the lessons-learned into future classes. Shipbuilders thereby improve on strengths and compensate for past shortcomings.
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