Type 037I Class (Haiqing Class) Chinese Corvette

The Type 037I 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 The earlier boats are fitted with two manually operated twin-barrel 37 mm guns, but they have been replaced by two automatic 37 mm guns on the later variants.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. One Haiqing class submarine chaser was purchased by the Sri Lanka Navy and was commissioned in 1996 as SLNS Parakramabahu (P351), serving in the Sri Lankan Civil War.