By the end of 2022, after several negotiations, Saudi Arabia and Huaxia officially signed a procurement contract.

Compared with the initial negotiations, Saudi Arabia has increased the number of 052Es to 6 and 054B to 8, in addition to adding 6 Type 041 AIP conventional submarines.

Of course, not all ships were built in Huaxia.

6 052Es are definitely being built in Huaxia.

According to the agreement, Huaxia will deliver the first two 052Es in 2026, and then deliver the remaining four by 2030 at a rate of one per year.

This kind of battleship is actually an enlarged version of 052D.

Compared with the 052D, the biggest change of the 052E is that the hull is extended by 12 meters, the vertical launch system at the rear has been increased from 4 to 8, the number of vertical launch tubes of the whole ship has increased to 96, and two hangars that can accommodate 10-ton utility helicopters have been set up.

With this change, the full load displacement of the 052E reached 9200 tons, which is comparable to the "Burke" class.

For this purpose, four more powerful gas turbines were used to ensure that the ship's top speed of 30 knots could still be achieved after the tonnage was increased.

In fact, the design of the 052E has been completed a long time ago, but it was previously used as a spare tire for the 055.

To put it simply, if the design and construction of 055 is in trouble, Huaxia will temporarily replace it with 052E to alleviate the shortage of warships in the navy.

Fortunately, the design and construction of 055 was smooth sailing.

Because the improvement potential of the 052 platform has been exhausted, and the extension of the hull will inevitably lead to a decrease in stability, resulting in many unexpected problems, so after starting to build 055 in batches, Huaxia canceled the 052E project and built more 052D instead.

Of course, the key is the cost.

After lengthening the hull, increasing the number of vertical launch tubes, and adopting new power equipment, the 052E is not much cheaper to build than the 055.

Obviously, compared with the expensive cost, the combat capability of the 052E is significantly higher than that of the 055.

The point is that no matter how 052E is changed, it does not have the ability to command air defense operations, and there is no extra space to install an air defense command system.

It can be said that in the Huaxia Navy, 052E will definitely not be able to replace 055, at most it will only fill the vacancy of 052D.

The problem is that if you do not take into account the command of air defense operations, the 052D is completely sufficient, and the extra 32 vertical launch tubes of the 052E are not of much value.

It is precisely because of this that Huaxia did not build 052E.

Of course, after Saudi Arabia put forward a request, Huaxia also came up with the 052E plan.

For the Saudis, the 052E is good enough.

Why?

Purely judging from the combat effectiveness of this ship, the 052E is by no means below the "Burke" class, far surpassing the destroyers and frigates of European countries.

In addition, the "Burke" did not have the ability to command air defense operations.

In terms of radar performance, the 052E is even better, that is, the 052E is equipped with an active phased array radar, while the "Burke" uses a passive phased array radar.

As for the active phased array radar developed by the United States for the third generation Burke, it will certainly not be exported in the short term.

Also, the scalability of the 052E is significantly better.

The key is that the 052E is equipped with a vertical launch system with a larger caliber and will be able to accommodate missiles with a larger diameter in the future, such as anti-missile missiles.

Of course, for Saudi Arabia, the most important thing is actually cheap.

6 052E, built by Huaxia, including 12 Z-20 anti-submarine helicopters, and all carrier-based weapons, with a total price of only 12 billion US dollars.

For this amount of money, you can buy up to 2 "Burke".

Of course, the price of the whole system is even higher, mainly because it will definitely take a lot of money to purchase supporting ammunition, especially expensive regional anti-aircraft missiles.

It's just that even if you count the ammunition, it's good enough.

In the end, Saudi Arabia spent $18 billion on these six 052Es, which is still lower than the price of purchasing three Burkes.

These six 052Es made the Royal Saudi Navy the first navy in the Gulf region to have destroyers, and became the number one maritime power in the region in one fell swoop.

You know, across the bay, the largest tonnage of the Iranian Navy is only frigates.

Of course, it will be a few more years before Saudi Arabia gets its first batch of 2 052Es.

In fact, for Saudi Arabia, the Type 054B frigate is the most ideal choice.

In addition, the 054B is also the main warship promoted by Huaxia in the international market.

Why?

With small tonnage and complete combat effectiveness, it is more suitable for the navies of small and medium-sized countries, and for most countries, there is basically no pressure on equipment.

What's more, this is just a kind of corvette, which is not very aggressive.

From the point of view of the international situation, the impact of export frigates is certainly much lower than that of export destroyers.

054B, in fact, is also an amplified and improved version of 054A.

Compared to the 054A, the 054B has increased the tonnage by 1,000 tons with a more powerful gas turbine, but still retains 32 vertical launch tubes.

The biggest change is the introduction of a "small four-sided shield".

This X-band phased array radar mounted on the top of the mast is actually tailor-made for frigates to improve their air defense combat capabilities.

In terms of technical performance, the small four-sided shield is comparable to the European Sampson radar.

If it is used for regional air defense, it is obviously very difficult, but it is more than enough only for long-range air defense to deal with general threats.

For frigates, what is needed is actually only limited air defense capabilities.

Of course, for the Saudis, this is also enough.

With the four-sided shield, the 054B has the ability to carry and use long-range anti-aircraft missiles, which also has a certain regional air defense capability.

Although it cannot be compared with a destroyer, it is actually enough to deal with an opponent like Iran.

More importantly, the 054B uses the same large-caliber vertical launch tube as the 055, which can carry medium-range anti-aircraft missiles with one pit and four bombs.

Normally, 64 medium-range anti-aircraft missiles can be carried with 16 launch tubes.

This amount is enough to meet almost all operational needs.

Of course, the key is cheapness.

According to the contract, Huaxia will deliver 2 054Bs to Saudi Arabia by 2024, and the remaining 6 will be built in Saudi Arabia's own shipyards.

Of course, to be precise, assembly, that is, most of the parts still need to be imported from China, and Saudi Arabia has no production capacity.

The purchase price of 8 054Bs is only 9.6 billion US dollars, and 1.2 billion units.

Of course, counting the supporting ammunition, it will cost about $15 billion in total, mainly because vertically launched medium-range anti-aircraft missiles are not cheap.

In other words, the 054B is actually the first type of shield ship that Saudi Arabia has acquired.

The biggest gain of Saudi Arabia in this transaction is actually the ability to assemble and build medium-sized warships.

In addition, according to the additional agreement, if any Arab League countries intend to purchase 054B in the future, all of them will be assembled by Saudi Arabia and exported by Saudi Arabia.

That is, Saudi Arabia will thus become an exporter of warships, even if the water is very large.

However, in the arms sales, the most eye-catching are those submarines.