Posted on 01/10/2018 7:58:08 PM PST by sukhoi-30mki
Here’s what Wiki says,
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Type: Guided missile frigate
Boats & landing
craft carried: Rigid-Hull Inflatable Boats
Sensors and
processing systems: A COMBATSS-21 Combat Management System (AEGIS derivative)
A fixed, phased-array radar
Next Generation Surface Search Radar
AN/SLQ-61 light weight towed array sonar
AN/SQS-62 Variable-Depth Sonar
AN/SQQ-89F undersea warfare/anti-submarine warfare combat system
Cooperative Engagement Capability
Armament: Possibly RIM-162 ESSM Block 2 and/or RIM-174 Standard ERAM missiles
Four canister launched Over-the-horizon Anti-Ship Weapons
Surface-to-surface Longbow Hellfire missiles
SeaRAM Close-In Weapons System
a Mk 110 57mm gun with the Advanced Low Cost Munition Ordnance (ALaMO) projectile and related systems.[1]
Unknown amount of VLS tubes [2]
Aircraft carried: 1x MH-60R Seahawk helicopter
MQ-8C Firescout
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I’ll take this ship over any surface warship from WW2. Do you know why? The old cans from WW2 would get sunk by this little ole modern frigate every time.
Agreed - and use the real estate for more VLS
If you look at the basic characteristics listed in Post #21 you can see that the ship has a good mix of capabilities and looks to be a greatly improved design over the LCS and the old Oliver Hazard Perry frigates from the 80s. However the weapons systems can be improved to be at least on par with the latest Russian and Chinese weapons that are being put on their new advanced frigates. Adding a torpedo capability can help even more
Lockheed Martin has already tested a harpoon replacement.
Pick one quickly and put 50 of them to sea in 5 years.
While building 3 Virginia class subs every year...with a parallel modern DE build of 3 per year until we reach 30.
And, of course, we must maintain our current build rate of Aegis platforms, and Carriers and Amphibs.
Not all ships have to be $3bil masterpieces. Sometimes you just need platforms at sea that can shoot.
It is not on par with these ships.
China:
https://thediplomat.com/2017/12/china-launches-new-type-054a-guided-missile-stealth-frigate/
Russia:
http://www.military-today.com/navy/admiral_gorshkov_class.htm
It is better than Harpoon but not in the league of Onyx Yakhunt (Super Sunburn).
“In any case, this LCS upgrade cannot survive a duel with a T-72 tank on the beach, or defend itself from the ubiquitous motorboat close in attack. It also has no ASW defense.”
The upgraded LCS will not win this competition.
The National Security Frigate will.
https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2014-04/its-time-sea-control-frigate
The LCS upgrade is only one proposal. The other proposals are actual frigates. It’s thought the current problems with the actual LCS are going to make the “upgraded to frigate” version the odds-on least favorite. The others mount CIWS guns and such.
A WW2 frigate or destroyer could not penetrate battleship armor either, as Taffy 3 demonstrated.
“Its unlikely that Harpoons, with a 500 lb warhead, could have sunk a WWII capital ship.”
The Harpoon can blow the antennas off of any WWII ship and take it out of the fight.
It could be sunk later by any available platform.
IIRC, Harpoons use a much more powerful (weight for weight) explosive compound (DESTEX) than anything non-nuclear in WW2. It also delivers all of it and doesn’t have to crack a heavy shell to get out. WW2 battleship armor piercing shells were something like 2000-3000lbs and had less than 100lbs of bursting charge. Most of the weight of the shell was the actual shell itself, not the explosive.
Yes, it really can be a lot better.
The helipad and hangers would carry helicopters and large drones. The drones are critical for extending sensor range in today’s battlespace.
At $950 Million per ship I see the usual 10X profit margins are getting fatter while the ships are getting smaller :-(
Just how much did previous or current generation of Destroyers billed at? I dont recall that they were more than $200 Million each?
My sentiments exactly.
They are only improving things marginally rather than developing weapons that are superior to our enemies. This is what you call crony capitalism.
IMHO, sooner or later the Navy is going to have to go up on tonnage in order to carry the hardware they want. The Demoines class cruisers ran at about 18k tons.
The bow has no chin sonar dome. Interesting.
Nope 57mm/2.25”/6pdr like on the LCS
Thanks for the specs.
Is the primary purpose of the gun to stop attacks by small watercraft?
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