Type 52 gunboat

Type 52 gunboat was a type of gunboat developed by China for the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) in the early 1950s, and it was the first indigenously developed gunboat in the People's Republic of China (PRC).

In April 1952, PLAN asked Chinese premier Zhou Enlai for authorization to build first generation indigenously developed gunboat of PRC, and when the authorization was promptly given for a total of 30, the boat was designated as Type 52, after the year the program started. Jiangnan Shipyard was tasked to build 20 boats in four batches, 4 each for first two batches, and 6 each for the 2nd batches. Construction begun on May 15, 1952 and after half a year, all 20 were completed. Hull number was numbered from 501 thru 520. The remaining 10 boats were built by Qingdao Shipyard, more commonly known as PLAN No 4808 Factory, the predecessor of current Qingdao Shipyard Co. Ltd. (青岛造船厂有限公司).

This first generation gunboat built by PRC mostly utilizes leftover American components when communist took over, with the propulsion system being three diesel engines built by General Motors. Most armament comes from leftover Japanese weaponry. The boat was armed with two Type 96 25 mm AT/AA Gun, with one each at bow and stern respectively. A Japanese heavy machine gun was mounted at the port and starboard sides. Some of the boats have been upgraded with former Soviet 37 mm automatic air defense gun M1939 (61-K) replaced the forward 25 mm, and this upgraded version is designated as Type 52A (52 Jia Xing, 52甲型). All boats were equipped with rudimentary minesweeping gears and all boats were equipped to carry eight 41-kg depth charges. Type 52/52A have since retired from PLAN.