Shipbucket

if the FREMM proposal is based on the Italian hull rather then the French one, it's possible that it has the Navantia design beat on the helicopter front, as it has two hangars, one of which can house an AW-101.

I did not know that, but quite possibly so considering that yes, it is built upon the Italian FREMM

The housing they built for the ECM system is very interesting.
https://www.navyrecognition.com/index.p ... radar.html

_________________
Supreme Commander of the Astrofleets

Just as a little update, it was just announced that the Type 26 has been chosen for SEA 5000, to be named the 'Hunter' class

Wow, that was a nail-biter at the end. Still surprised the evolved F-100 did not make it. I next big surprise will the RCN new frigate, the type 31E, and lastly the USN FFG(X)

_________________
Supreme Commander of the Astrofleets

I think that there was a lot more emphasis on ASW in the competition than the RAN gave out, becuase that is besically THE part where the T26 really shone compared to the other designs. Otherwise it would have made more sense to go with the Hobart derived design.

_________________
Would you please not eat my gun...

the FREMM design is one of my favorite frigate design.


If I do not remember wrong, I think there was one version proposed early in the Norwegian program, but it didn't become the final 4 (final 4 was, German: Meko; US: Lockheed-design; British design: either a 1 of design or what might be staging ground for type 26, Norwegian design)

I think the problem that FREMM wasn't chosen was: cost and the ability to carry more than 300 tons of ice and up to 0.5 meter with snow, without to much change in ships sea-keeping performance.

From what I gathered the RAN made it clear from the get go, way back in 2009, that the Future Frigates were going to be heavily geared towards ASW, which made the Type 26 the favourite to win leading up to the decision. Navantia's offering only ever really seemed to make sense from a cost and time point of view, which are of course very important, but even then maybe memories of the initial bungling of the AWD construction was fresh in the minds of those making the choice. That's not to say it would have been a bad design, just not as good.


FREMM always seemed an outside bet for SEA5000, wedged in between the high-end option (T26) and budget option (F100), and Fincantieri is basically non-existent in Australia anyway, it would have required going through the whole Navantia process all over again but with a different company. Doesn't help that the FREMM design doesn't have a huge deal of growth margin, from what I hear, and would probably require far more integration work than the other two designs, even just going off armaments, let alone combat systems and the like. Again not a bad design, and certainly better than F100, but in this case it seems that the RAN wanted the best capability possible, whilst Government wanted a reasonably fuss-free industry plan that could also open up potential defence export opportunities (Bushmasters are already being offered for the UK's MRV-P program). IMO, it was always going to be between BAe and Navantia

This was the best time to make surprize (Y)

it would have been interesting if the Dutch had put forward a version of the LCF for this.