Posted on 06/28/2004 10:34:34 AM PDT by jriemer
History channel had a documentary on stealth. It is a matter of angling the surfaces.
I don't see this as a biggie. If you were buying a battleship, why not order stealthy angles?
Though the present versions in service with the French navy don't have vls-ive read reports that the ships may be upgraded with the Aster-15 sam(same class as the Nato ESSM)&the Thales arabel phased array radar.The missiles will be launched from a 16cell VLS.
Morever the 'Al Sawari' air defence variant of the Lafayette ships built for Saudi Arabia are built with the 16 cell aster-15 vls(will be upgraded to 32 cells)&arabel radar combo.The Singapore navy which has ordered the most advanced variant of the this type-the Formidable class ,have a 32 cell vls &also a radically new Multi functional radar.
Actually these ships are rather of a disappointment-it is essentially a state of the art platform with pretty stale weaponry&sensors.The Germans designed this class (the Meko 200B class of air defence frigates) to be equipped with German-Dutch Apar radar system or the US Aegis system &to operate the Sm-2&RAM missiles(probably the ESSM as well) from a 24 Mk-41 vls.The South Africans though opted for a conventional 3d radar&an indegnious SAM with a range of 10-12kms,though their requirements are different.The worst part was to lift 76 mm guns from 30yr old ex navy corvettes to form the gun armament instead of new versions.
So essentially u can compare it to a B-2 bomber armed not with the JDAM or JASSM ,but with pure dumb bombs.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.