Type 037 corvette

The Type 037 corvette is a series 400-500 ton corvette type classes in service with the Peoples Liberation Army Navy. Unlike western navies, the Peoples Liberation Army Navy does not have dedicated patrol boats in its inventory. Instead, a large variety of corvette type classes, in the form of missile boats and submarine chasers fulfill the tasks of patrolling China's territorial waters.

Type 037-class submarine chaser
The Type 037-class submarine chaser (NATO reporting name: Hainan-class), is a class of submarine chaser of the People's Liberation Army Navy. It was designed by China to replace the Soviet S.O.-1 class submarine chaser.

In addition to anti-submarine warfare missions, these simple yet effective units are also capable of a wide variety of missions such as mine laying and patrol. These boats were first equipped with Soviet Tamir-11 (MG-11, NATO reporting name: Stag Hoof) hull mounted sonars wich had a typical range of 3 km, but in the 1970s, they were superseded by domestic Chinese SJD-3 sonar, which is modification of original MG-11: instead of being fixed to the hull, SJD-3 has a telescoping arm, so when not in use, the sonar is stored in the hull, and when deployed, the sonar is lowered into water several meter below the hull, thus increased detection range by avoiding baffles generated by the hull.

During the Sino-South Vietnamese naval clashes on January 19, 1974, two boats of this class, # 281 & # 282 (two out of the 8 total in Chinese inventory) participated in the latter half of the battle, the fastest Chinese units in the conflict. Originally the units were waiting at Yongxing Island, but due to the problem of communications (mainly due to the backwardness of the Chinese communication gear), they were not notified until the battle was already in progress.

Over 100 were built, but as newer submarine chasers enter service, this class is steadily being decommissioned. A number of these ships have subsequently been exported to Bangladesh, Egypt, North Korea, Pakistan and Myanmar. On October 13, 2013, A North Korean Type 037 was lost off Wonsan with the loss of at least nineteen of her crew. She may have been in collision with another Korean People's Navy ship.

It is understood that four Type 037 submarine chasers were modified and became known as the Type 037 Mod (NATO: Haijiu-class).

In PLAN service, pennant numbers as follows: 601－610, 622, 625－629, 639, 650, 673, 674, 677, 681－687, 689－692, 694－696, 698－709 and 721－742

Type 037I-class submarine chaser
The Type 037I-class submarine chaser (NATO reporting name: Haiqing class), is a follow-on class of submarine chasers to the preceding Type 037-class of the People's Liberation Army Navy. There are two designation sof this class, the base Type 037I and the improved Type 037IS. The earlier boats were built by the Qiuxin Shipyard of Shanghai, and later by Huangpu Shipyard.

The ships are armed with two 6-tubed anti-submarine mortar launchers. The earlier boats are fitted with two manually operated twin-barrel 37 mm guns, but they have been replaced by two automatic 37 mm guns on the later variants. They also have various other mounted heavy machine guns for patrol duty. These weapons focus on a general-purpose patrol boat, with only a limited anti-submarine capability.

Ships in PLAN service by pennant number:
 * Type 037I; 688, 693 , 694 and  697
 * Type 037IS; Approx. 611－614, 619, 631, 632－635, 710－713, 743, 744, 761－763 and 786－789

Type 037IG-class missile boat
The Type 037IG-class missile boat (NATO: Houxin-class) were first built by Qiuxing and Huangpu Shipyard from 1991 through 1999 for the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). In addition to the PLAN, 6 were exported to Myanmar: 2 in 1995, 2 in July 1996, and 2 in late 1997. This boat is the anti-ship version of the Type 037-classes of submarine chasers, armed with missiles rather than torpedoes. It is most effectively used in conjunction with multiple missile boats to send a swarm of missiles towards its intended target and then egress from the area immediately. The swarm of anti-ship missiles will hopefully slip past the target's air defenses for at least one or possibly more hits.

Ships in PLAN service: 651－656、 751－760 and 764－767

Type 037II-class missile boat
The Type 037II-class 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 defence force currently protecting Hong Kong.

The original design was from the US one-off H-3 group, which designed a 245-ton boat, equipped with Harpoon SSM OTO 76mm guns, gas turbine engines and waterjet propulsion. These equipments were however, too complicated for China, and a major redesign began, fitting the boat with C-801 SSM, diesel engines and propellers instead. The OTO 76mm gun was retained in the revised design, called EH-3D (1988) and later 520T (1996), but failed to materialised after the 1989 incident.

The first vessel was built in 1990, as a technology demonstrator as well as proof-of-concept vessel, and fired its first missile (C-801) in the 1995 exercise. 3 more vessels were built in 1995/96. Due to technology difficulties, particularly on the license produced SEMT diesel engines, high price, and over sophisticated design in PLAN standard, the production was terminated. A fifth vessel, bort no. 774, was built in 2001, as another proof of concept vessel for the modified SEMT engines with new turbochargers and the Russian-license produced 76 mm gun (AK-176).

4 vessels were built for rotation, with 2 vessels being deployed to Hong Kong each time. The fifth vessel was involved in navigation accident twice. In the first time (2001) it was nearly sunk after crash with a fast ferry servicing the Hong Kong-Guangzhou route. It was on pre-delivery test at that time. In June 2006, it crashed again, with a Chinese freighter, and sunk immediately. 13 servicemen were missing in the accident. The vessel was later afloat again and sent to the shipyard for repair.

In 2012 Bangladesh contracted for two slightly modified ships.

Ships in PLAN service:
 * 770 	Yangjiang
 * 771 	Shunde'
 * 772 	Nanhai
 * 773 	Panyu
 * 774 	Lianjiang
 * 775 	Xinhui