What Rivals Will Britain’s New T31e Corvette be Facing?

The launch this week of Britain’s national shipbuilding strategy, with an order of five vessels to be designed and built in English shipyards, sees the UK’s aspiration to compete in the global warship export market. The British government this week launched a national shipbuilding strategy with an order for five new vessels for the Royal Navy to be designed and built across English shipyards.

The core design of these new ships is called the Type 31 export (T31e) frigate, although there are already questions as to whether the type is a frigate or a corvette. Either way, the proposed price tag (£250 million/$325 million per vessel) makes them attractive to the Treasury, but questions remain over the international market.

The market competition is tight and the British design is going to have fight against an established group of exporters that have proven designs at a critically-attractive price point. Customers all have specific national requirements, all balancing promised capabilities against price tags.

The global market has shifted requirements back to a demand for sheer fighting capabilities, as opposed to ships designed for constabulary missions (anti-piracy, counter narcotics and migration missions), as has arguably been the dominant requirement on the global market between the start of this century and 2015.

The global market has shifted requirements back to a demand for sheer fighting capabilities, as opposed to ships designed for constabulary missions, such as anti-piracy, counter narcotics and migration missions

States are now demanding ships that can defend themselves even on those missions, as the accessibility of sophisticated weapons puts scarce national assets at risk: whether Houthis armed with cruise missiles being fired from Yemen, suicide boats in the Mediterranean or mines and submarines in Asia.

In France, DCNS – now called the Naval Group – will provide a basic frigate (the FREMM class) for around $450 million, as it has done to Morocco. This high-spec warship includes land-attack missiles as well as anti-shipping missiles, plus medium range air defence capability linked to its modern phased array radar, passive electronics suite, electronic attack, towed and hull-mounted sonars and submarine attack weapons.

The FREMM has space for one or two helicopters in the hangar. At 6,000 tons it is not a small vessel and the price tag reflects that, yet it is also available on a leasing arrangement (for Greece). There is a lot of capability for a relatively small price, which has made it attractive to the export market: Australia and Canada have shown an interest for their own requirements.

The Germans can float a similarly capable vessel for around $650 million (the F125 Baden-Württemberg Class Frigate), but given the lack of any sonar systems, theirs has not been an attractive proposition to the export market.

For those with a cheaper palate, German shipyards Thyssen-Krupp Marine Systems will also build a Sa’ar 6 corvette as they are doing for the Israeli Navy. The Sa’ar classes have been proven in combat, have a comprehensive all-round sensor and weapon fit (including its own helicopter) and at only 2,000 tons are available at around $250 million.

The higher-cost end of the European export market comes from Spain and the highly capable, long-range F100 Alvaro de Bazan Class Frigate from the world renowned Navantia shipbuilders. Providing air, surface, undersea and land-attack capabilities, a sophisticated sensor suite and built-in US (and NATO) compatible combat system, the F100 is a big ship.

At 6,000 tons it has the range and space to meet the challenging requirements of the Royal Australian Navy’s SEA5000 replacement frigate programme. But the price tag of $834 million per unit does not make it cheap, and Britain’s new T31e will certainly undercut it.

More comparable with the T31e is Korea’s FFX/F2000/Incheon class. For around $230 million, the buyer will get a 3,000-ton, 30-knot ship designed for modern combat against near-peer adversaries. The Incheon has a modern suite of radar and sonar (hull mounted and towed array), weapons for land attack, surface strike, air defence, and submarine attack as well as countermeasures against weapons fired from above and below the surface.

The T31e enters a well-established warship export market that the UK has failed to penetrate in the past 40 years

A 5-inch gun and a helicopter complement the capability. This is a mighty vessel designed for warfighting and not constabulary roles, all with the Korean shipbuilding stamp on them (meaning they are delivered on budget and on time).

There are, of course, two other alternative exporters with established designs: Russia and China.

The lead ship of the Russian Navy’s new Project 22350 (Admiral Gorshkov) frigate was launched this year.

At a reported $250 million per unit, these heavy frigates are among the most potent warfighting surface ships at sea. The phased-array radar, towed and hull mounted sonars, a sophisticated electronic warfare suite are matched to proven and capable, long-range attack weapons.

The naval version of the S350 air defence missile, alongside a 130 mm main gun, torpedoes and anti-submarine missiles, are complemented with the supersonic land/naval strike capability provided by either the BraMos or Yakhont cruise missiles.

As with all Russian surface ships, the lead platform is sure to have some engineering problems (and may not meet with the strict crew accommodation requirements of some Western navies), but so, too, does Britain’s T45 destroyer.

China also has a modern offering for the international market at around the same price as the Gorshkov and the proposed T31e. The first Type 054A frigate of the People’s Liberation Army Navy entered service in 2008, with 25 vessels operational.

British companies should beware of offering a competitor platform that is under-armed, under-manned or lightweight.

With a similar weapon and sensor fit to the Gorshkov, it was also designed to be stealthy in terms of the radar returns that are reflected from the hull and the acoustic signature it emits. At an estimated $300 million per unit, the Type 045A failed to win an order in 2013 in Thailand, but three were sold, delivered and are in commission with the Royal Malaysian Navy.

Thus, the T31e enters a well-established warship export market that the UK has failed to penetrate in the past 40 years. For the same money, a state can purchase proven designs, build them off or on shore, fitted for combat as well as constabulary duties, and interoperable with either US, Russia or China.

British companies should beware of offering a competitor platform that is under-armed, under-manned or lightweight. The US Navy has encountered similar issues with its own Littoral Combat Ship and is moving towards a more capable (and expensive) fully fledged frigate instead of the cheap and cheerful designs once imagined as cost-effective. The LCS simply could not defend a carrier or carry out the multitude of missions expected of it.

Admittedly, the ships a T31e will be encountering from potential adversaries might not have the pedigree of Cammel Laird or Harlan and Wolff, but they will be able to fight at range and with a powerful punch. International buyers, as well as – one hopes – the Royal Navy, would not want to be at disadvantaged in the coming decades.

Banner image: The Venator-110 Frigate is one of the contenders for the Type-31e. Courtesy of BMT Defence Systems.

The views expressed in this Commentary are those of the author, and do not reflect those of RUSI or any other institution.

Most of the current generation of frigates look like toys. If this one was up gunned a little it would be an excellent ship. Since the USN is looking for a frigate it might be worthwhile looking at an existing design that could be built under license

Our current 'top' destroyer (which doesn't actually have working weapons systems because the computer systems don't work and we didn't buy any ammo for the main gun) looks worse than a toy, it looks like a video game ship rendered in a bad Call Of Duty Advanced Warfare clone by someone who had never seen a warship but had had one described to him once.

Not sure how much the “pedigree” of Cammell Laird is worth nowadays...

A company that was nationalized in 1977, closed in 1993, restarted after the name was bought out and then went into receivership in 2001.

Then the land was bought out by the company that bought the entire Liverpool dock system in 2005 and is still planning an upscale gentrification of the land for a project called Wirral Waters. They then sold the Cammell Laird name to the ship repair company that had been using part of the old docks.

A good historic name, but not much recent pedigree. A long way from 1950 and this famous picture of HMS Ark Royal over the Birkenhead neighbourhood.

As a side note, I saw the oil tanker Zenatia launched there in 1957 - it was an impressive sight for a kid. It was scrapped in 1976.

No, because most of their roles have been subsumed by patrol boats, littoral warfare craft (which our Navy screwed up with and is now desperately trying to make into destroyers or frigates or something) and the like.

If you’re thinking a patrol boat is something like a PT boat, they’re not any more and haven’t been a while. A modern patrol boat could fight off an entire squadron of DEs. They mount combined missile and gun CIWS systems, mount multiple full-sized antishipping missiles in racks or VLS, carry ASROC and/or torpedoes and some mount 3” guns.

Chinese Type 22 Missile (patrol) Boat:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gjJji77BZ_A/Vl6bgwz_dlI/AAAAAAABE1c/L25qZwGCG4o/s1600/type-022missileboat2.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_22_missile_boat

Other modern vessels of similar type or role:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamina-class_missile_boat
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skjold-class_corvette
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roussen-class_fast_attack_craft

Yes, and it’s not 1957 any more.... :P

Say hello to the 200-knot-plus VA-111 Shkval torpedo. Currently on the world arms market for anyone with the bucks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VA-111_Shkval

We don’t have a supercavitating torpedo - our guided torpedoes go about 55kts and have about an 8km range. But we’re promised one Real Soon Now®.

Did I mention the Shkval is in its second iteration and has twice the range of our torpedoes?

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