Type 037II Class (Houjian Class) Chinese Corvette

The Type 037II missile boat (NATO: Houjian class) is a missile-equipped corvette built by Huangpu Shipyard of Guangzhou for the People's Liberation Army Navy. A total of six vessels were delivered to the PLA Navy and form the main naval defense force currently protecting Hong Kong. The original one-off design was by an American company, the H-3 group, the design was for a 245-ton boat, equipped with Harpoon SSMs, OTO Melara 76 mm guns, gas turbine engines, and waterjet propulsion. However, these specifications were too complicated for China, and a major redesign was begun, resulting in a boat with C-801 SSMs, diesel engines, and propellers instead. The OTO Melara 76mm gun was retained in the revised design, called in 1988 the EH-3D (and in 1996 the 520T), but failed to survive the cooling of relations with the West following the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 and the resulting end of Western participation in Chinese military projects. The first vessel was built in 1990, as a technology demonstrator and proof-of-concept trials vessel, it fired its first C-801 missile in a 1995 exercise. Three more vessels were built in 1995/96. However, due to technical difficulties (particularly with regards to the license-produced SEMT diesel engines), high price, and over-sophisticated design compared to the PLAN standard, further production was terminated. A fifth vessel, hull number 774, was built in 2001, as another proof of concept vessel for modified SEMT engines with new turbochargers and license-produced Russian AK-176 76 mm gun. Four vessels were built for rotation, with 2 vessels being deployed to Hong Kong at a time. The fifth vessel has been involved in two navigation incidents. The first time in 2001 whilst on a pre-delivery test it was nearly sunk after a crash with a fast ferry servicing the Hong Kong-Guangzhou route. In June 2006, it crashed again, this time with a Chinese freighter, and sank immediately, 13 servicemen going missing in the accident. The vessel was later refloated and sent to the shipyard for repair. The Azmat-class vessels in service with the Pakistani Navy are based on this class. In 2012 Bangladesh contracted for two slightly modified ships.