This 24 ships were built at the Huangpu and Qiuxing shipyards and were assigned to the PLAN’s South Sea Fleet and about 20 remain in service. These ships replaced the Houku class within the PLN and have been exported to Myanmar and Sri Lanka, although the latter had two Type 87 ASW mortars in place of the YJ-1‘s missile launchers.The Houxin class are practically the same as the Type 037-I Haiqing ASW class, but with the main armament replaced by anti-ship missiles. The YJ-1 missiles have a range of 40 km and have active radar guidance, its 165 kg warhead have installed a time delayed impact proximity fuse to improve their effectiveness. These missiles operate in skimming mode and fly at a speed of Mach 0.9. The armament is completed with two 37/63mm Type 76A twin guns and between two and four 14.5mm heavy machine guns. The 37mm guns have a maximum AA range of 8.5 km and a joint firing rate of about 360 rounds per minute.Houxin class has a Type 352E, “Square Tie”, (according to NATO designation), radar for surface search and anti-ship missile targeting. In addition an Anritsu Type 723 navigational radar and a Type 347G, “Rice Lamp”, radar for 37mm AA fire-control were installed. They also carry an interceptor and a jammer as ECM/ESM devices. The Sri Lankan ship carries a “Stag Ear” hull mounted active search/attack sonar.(471 Maga ship). Myanmar Navy (former Burma) received six vessels between 1995 and 1997, which are identical to those operated by China. Although the Houxin class has been conceived as low-cost vessels, they have a powerful armament to pose a threat to much larger ships. It seems that they use an anti-ship attack tactic consisting of combined attacks launching a good amount of missiles that saturate the enemy defenses.
