Modern Naval Warfare - Navy Log Book #6 - NPC Ships Part 1

Foreword: Those unfamiliar with some terms used in the text will find a helpful glossary at the end of this Navy LogBook.

Ahoy! Today, it’s time for a little naval review, last month we had a tour inside the Virginia, today we are going to take a look outside at some of her potential victims or hunters (depending on the side!). Starting with the Chinese PLAN ships and ASW air assets that roam into the South China Sea. Not all ships are currently modeled since all the assets are in house created. At launch there will be around 75 ships, submarines and air assets (military and civilian) ready.

In the simulator, you are going to encounter different type of surface ships, from small missile boats to aircraft carriers and submarines. There will be civilian ships from small life boats to Panamax Containers, Cruise ships, tankers, etc.

You may have already heard about the terms patrol, OPV, corvette, frigate, destroyer or missile boat. But what is the difference between a frigate or a destroyer and a missile boat?

World Navies enjoy designating ships by types, but these designations are not cast in stone. Some Frigates in one country are considered a Destroyer in another one (and Destroyers as Cruiser). In some case for constitutional reasons, Aircraft carriers are designated helicopter-destroyers (e.g. the Izumo of the JMDF). There are no hard and fast rule to designate a ship by its length or tonnage. Usually, the ship's purpose is used to classify a vessel as frigate, destroyer or auxiliary.

In Modern Naval Warfare, you will encounter enemy ships in the first playable area, the South China Sea. As we update the game after release and plan future DLC, this will expand to include more enemy ships, and eventually more playable submarines and surface ships. Modern Naval Warfare is not exclusively a submarine game.

Ranked from low displacement to the highest we have...

• Missile boat

• Frigates

• Destroyer

• Cruiser

• Landing Ship

• LHP / LHD

• AOE/AOR/AOT/…

• Aircraft Carrier

You might wonder about their respective role's and whether these ships are a threat or juicy target... Missile boats A Type-022 Missile Boat: cheap, fast, and capable of carrying a deadly assortement of anti-ship missiles. These ships are small but fast and carry anti-ship missiles. Easy to build and cheap with a small crew. They are used for coastal defense, operating in the Brown/Green water area. Their range is a short 300-400 nautical miles. Speed and numbers are their main advantage. They wait in the cover of coves or inlets and then swarm ships, fire their missiles, and hastily go back to cover. They are almost defenseless with limited air defense capability, usually being armed with short range SAM/MANPAD or CWIS for close protection.

A good example of missile boats in MNW is the Chinese Type 022 Houbei. A squadron (8 boats) can launch 64 missiles at a time. This can be a painful nuisance if correctly used.

The first ship destroyed by anti-ship missiles was the Israeli destroyer INS Eilat. In October, 1967 she was sunk by two Egyptians Komar-class missile boats with P-15 Termits.

For a submarine they are no threat unless they catch a glimpse of your periscope (they can report you) or worse if you are surfaced (they can shoot you)... but you know better, stay deep and silent.

Frigates

Type-056 Corvettes are a kind of light frigate that's fast, capable of operating in shallow waters, and has variants equipped with anti-submarine weaponry.

Frigates are