It’s hoped experience with this design will produce something extra special in its successor, the Type 26.“By common consent, the BAE design was the most advanced and capable of the three final contenders in the frigate competition,” Mr Childs says.
This will be paired through an Aegis combat computer network with a CEAFAR2 S/X/L band active phased- array radar under development by Canberra-based CEA.The long-range SM-2 missile, working in conjunction with the RAN’s Hobart-class air warfare destroyers, will be able to help defend a task group out to 160km.And, as Australia is purchasing only three of the Hobart class destroyers, chances are the navy will be forced to operate outside their air defence umbrella. BAE Systems Australia will deliver nine Hunter-class multi-mission frigates, under the $35bn contract. That’s as big as Australia’s Hobart-class specialist air-warfare destroyers.Where destroyers need to be fast and nimble, frigates must be quiet.And it’s a deadly game where the hunter is often being hunted.It’s all intended to carry the complex network of computers, guns, missiles, radars, sonars — and an MH60 helicopter — into harm’s way.The BAE Systems warship is wrapped around two electric motors and a gas turbine. The Australian frigates were originally fitted with American Mark 46 anti-submarine torpedoes, but by 2008, they had been replaced with the European MU90 Impact torpedo in three of the four frigates as part of the FFG Upgrade, with the conversion of Newcastle underway at that point. At more than $35 billion, the Royal Australian Navy will want to get as much bang for its buck as possible.And these ships will likely be launched into an uncertain world.A new arms race is unfolding in Asia. Its shipyard in the Adelaide suburb of Osborne will be the hub once production starts in 2020. Royal Australian Navy press release / LEUT Gary McHugh (author) Anzac recently sailed to her homeport of Fleet Base West, Garden Island, Western Australia, … Containers positioned on either side of the ship carry four advanced anti-ship missiles, giving the frigate some ability to engage surface targets beyond that of its 5-inch gun.One Phalanx on close-in weapons systems (CIWS) are fitted on each side of the frigate as a last-gasp defence against incoming missiles and aircraft, if the Nulka Decoy System fails to distract themThe amidships loading bay can handle a variety of modules, from rigid inflatable boats through to shipping containers and mission-specific packs.Australia’s Hunter class, like the British Type 26 City class it is based on, has a degree of modularity built into its design.It’s something its designers at BAE Systems are proud of.“A key feature is the ship’s flexible mission space, which can accommodate up to four 12 metre sea boats, a range of manned and unmanned air, surface or underwater vehicles or up to 11 20ft containers or ‘capability modules’, and the most advanced sensors available to the fleet,” it says in a statement.Essentially put, switch around a few components of its amidships cargo bay and you have a pirate-hunter to patrol the troubled waters of North Africa and Indonesia.Fill the space with rigid-hulled inflatable boats and the frigate is ready to deploy specialist troops.
And that will be in a context where “within the broader Indo-Pacific region, in the next two decades, half of the world’s submarines will be operating in the region …“Within the same period, at least half of the world’s advanced combat aircraft, armed with extended range missiles and supported by highly sophisticated information networks, will be operated by Indo-Pacific countries.”It all comes back to China’s intransigence over the South and East China seas — and Taiwan.As island nations, Britain and Australia have largely maintained their anti-submarine capabilities where others (including the United States) have let them fall by the wayside.Britain’s older Type 23 frigate is viewed as the most capable anti-submarine ship in the world. There’s a second S2150 hull-mounted sonar as a backup.Once located, hostile submarines can be attacked by a helicopter-dropped torpedo. They’re designed to propel the 8800-tonne vessel through the water at 27 nautical miles per hour (knots). And the first of three new air warfare destroyers has been delivered.Some $50 billion has been earmarked for the construction of up to 12 French Shortfin Barracuda submarines. This negates the ability of submarines to hide among the sound-distorting layers of water at different depths. At more than $35 billion, the Royal Australian Navy will want to get as much bang for its buck as possible.
The first British-owned example is yet to take to the water.But the design will form the basis of Australia’s next generation anti-submarine frigate, dubbed the Hunter class.The outlay is enormous.
And these ships will likely be launched into an uncertain world. ASC Shipbuilding, a subsidiary of BAE Systems, will build the Hunter-class frigates.An advanced work agreement (AWA) for the engineering and design phase of the project was signed between BAE Systems and the …