China Builds its last and final Type 056 Corvette.

China will reportedly stop building its Type 056 corvettes after the navy shifted its focus to ordering bigger warships for high sea missions. China completed construction of the last Type 056 stealth-capable, guided-missile corvette, the Aba, in December 2019.

Type 056 Jiangdao-class corvette (Picture source: Chinese Internet)

The last of the 1,300-tonne guided-missile corvettes, the Aba, was completed in December, according to a recent report by the local media in the vessel’s namesake, Aba prefecture in Sichuan.

According to public reports, the first Type 056 was launched in 2012 and became quickly one of the most widely produced warships with at least 60 being built over the past eight years.

The 88.9 meter-long boat has a displacement of 1,300 tons and an endurance of 15 days. It is suited for mid-range missions and littoral duties, patrol, escort and protection of Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), etc.

The lightweight model has been widely adopted thanks to its powerful armaments, which include a 176mm gun, two 30mm cannons, anti-ship and air-defence missile launchers and two torpedo tubes. It can also load a medium-lift helicopter on board and has great flexibility in near-shore operations.