Thirty years ago, in 1991, the flag was raised on the lead destroyer of the Arleigh Burke series.
It cannot be classified as successful or unsuccessful. For too long it was the only project of this level. The Chinese super destroyer "Nanchang" (Type 55), with a serious look presented as a worthy response, was three decades late. Which translates further controversy into a parody plane.
Other destroyers of independent projects (1155.1, "Daring", "Calcutta") were built on much more modest TTZ. Mainly for financial reasons. Each of them was superior to Burke in some way. But to achieve values close to the maximum in all parameters - this was not a task for the designers.
How many destroyers can you build instead of a cruiser?
Save the epithet "balanced" for other occasions. Take common sense. The combination of excellent fighting qualities is achieved thanks to exceptionally high the price tag. For a clear understanding of the situation: in the nominal prices of our time, the construction of each destroyer is one and a half to two times more expensive than the modernization of the nuclear cruiser Nakhimov.
No nuclear reactors and hypersound. Destroyers carry traditional weapons. Which are individually installed on many modern ships and even on the shore. Keyword - individually. Everything is collected here on one ship.
Air defense / missile defense radar complex. A hydroacoustic station enclosed in an 18-meter fairing under the destroyer's keel. Technical intelligence and electronic warfare systems. Artillery and aircraft weapons. The main ammunition load, including 90 rocket ammunition with a maximum launch weight of 1.8 tons.
Burk has an unusual power plant according to the concepts of the XXI century. For decades, designers from different countries have been experimenting with gearboxes and diesel engines of economic motion. The possibility of using propulsion electric motors is being studied, trying to choose the optimal power plant scheme and to achieve a decrease in fuel consumption in the main modes.
The 31-node Burke is powered by four full-speed gas turbines. Excellent dynamics. Fuel efficiency is not a priority. Approximately 4 tons per hour cruising. But due to its size, there is enough fuel on board for transoceanic crossings. Nobody counted the cost of F-76 distillate (the main fuel for US ships).
As noted above, "Burke" is an immodest project in all respects.
In addition to the main armament, the range of auxiliary equipment includes rigid-hull inflatable boats, combat lasers, and drones, and Kingfisher sonar to counter mine threats. There is everything you need for inspection of ships, patrolling, provocations, tracking, reconnaissance and violation of foreign borders. With the possibility of hitting targets under water, in the depths of the continent and in near space.
And it is difficult to identify a situation for which such a destroyer would not be enough.
Ideally, the surface fleet needs nothing but such ships. They will provide a high-quality solution to all tasks for which corvettes-frigates, all kinds of small missile ships, patrol boats and "communications ships" are used in other countries. A fleet of missile destroyers only. It all comes down to cost.
Main battle ship
The division of the ship composition into ranks and classes is dictated by the limitation of military budgets. Most naval missions do not require 10,000 ton destroyers with missile defense systems on board.
But overseas have their own laws.
Patrol in the waters of the Strait of Malacca or prop up a pier in Odessa with $ 2 billion destroyers?
The possibility of such a situation was proven in practice about 10 years ago.
When the number of "Destroyers" exceeded fifty units, and the command of the Navy announced plans to take into operation dozens of such ships. As of June 2021: 68 in service, 1 - under sea trials, 4 - launched, 3 - laid down, 13 - approved for construction.
Then the public wonders: why are there so many reports of navigational accidents involving US destroyers?
With the decommissioning of the last Perry-class frigates in the first half of the 2010s, the missile destroyer with a displacement of 10,000 tons became the most massive type of surface ship.
Even at the height of the Cold War, no one had such a number of 1st rank units. Ready to take on all the tasks of smaller ships.
This has not happened in the entire history of the fleet.
Timely decision
It remains for us to show sympathy for the "defeated enemy" who was left without their frigates.
Where is the variety of ships' composition? Where is the art of choice? Where, finally, is the romance?
“And there was sunrise and there was sunset; in the sunset an abyss, darkness faster - the frigate was blowing up the waves …"
For ten years, the "probable enemy" suffered from gross injustice. Finally, overseas, they could not stand it and ordered a series of frigates of the "Constellation" ("Constellation") type for construction. By the name of the head representative of the series.
In the current decade, 10-15 units are planned for construction. Of course, the appearance of frigates will not change the balance of power. But what a move! Return of the lost class of military equipment.
The frigates will be built not instead of, but together with the Berk destroyers of sub-series III. To reduce the number of rank 1 ships under construction, replacing them with frigates - who could suggest such an offensive undertaking?
A number of domestic experts saw a hidden meaning here. The frigates will put an end to the construction of littoral battleships (LCS), clearly not the most successful project in recent years. Premature withdrawal.
Ships of the LCS class are badly needed by the navy, along with frigates and destroyers. This proposal was formalized in the form of a 2016 program that received a resounding name.
Fleet of 355 ships
And this is not a "mosquito fleet". On the pages of the project, the formation of a group of 104 "large surface combatants" (large surface ships) was discussed. Which are usually referred to as cruisers and destroyers.
Among the destroyers, aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines, the column "small surface combatants" (small surface ships), consisting of 52 units, was modestly listed. The smallest of them had a standard displacement of 2,500 tons. And the biggest one is more than 5 thousand.
It was supposed to leave 32 littoral ships in the ranks and add 20 frigates to help them.
Rhetoric in the future tense usually meets with mistrust and ridicule. However, the plan did not imply the construction of a "large fleet" from scratch, but only the preservation of existing forces. With a partial build-up of the ship's composition. Most of the 355 ships have been in service for a long time. As for the new 30-year shipbuilding plan, presented in December 2020, it looks much more epic - 446 ships with a crew and 242 large marine drones by mid-century.
As part of the new plan, the number of small warships should be increased by another 15 units.
The economy must be economical
The frigate is cheaper to build. Further, it is believed that the operational stress coefficient (KOH) of frigates will be higher than that of destroyers due to their more progressive design.
But this is a new project and all the associated costs of its appearance. The desire to get a couple of dozen frigates with the intention to have under a hundred destroyers looks strange.
One can argue about rationality, but seven dozen "Berks" have already been built. And new ones are being built. The destroyers have a unified design and are prepared for operations as part of homogeneous combat groups. Which should make it easier for them to interact and maintain.
Why was another deep sea zone ship project required?
Small units capable of operating where there is no place for large destroyers. Sounds convincing. "Constellation" as much as three meters shorter than "Burke" with a standard displacement of over 5000 tons. The total displacement of the frigate reaches 7000 tons. And the cost is $ 1 billion.
A new project with an extremely sophisticated design. Small-scale production of individual units. The announced plans for the training of two replacement crews (traditionally "blue" and "gold"). The listed points are unlikely to entail a tangible reduction in operating costs, compared to the ships available in the combat composition.
According to the information about the technical appearance, the frigate will be deprived of 2/3 of the combat qualities of the destroyer at a cost of half the Arleigh Burke.
Technical chapter
The frigates are planned to be built 1500 km from the ocean. Shipyard on the lake. Michigan previously became famous for the construction of littoral ships (LCS). Some time ago it was sold to the Italian company Fincantieri, which adds a European flavor to this story.
Now is the time to discuss the technical details. The language of dry numbers and conclusions based on available information.
Frigate type "Constellation" or FFG-62. Missile frigates are numbered from the first ship of this class, the Brook (FFG-1), built in the mid-1960s.
The new FFG-62 is an adaptation of the famous European project, 18 representatives of which are serving in the navies of four states (France, Italy, Morocco and Egypt).
Frigates of the FREMM type were created with the active use of technologies to reduce the visibility. Images of the future US frigate show the opposite trend. On this version, it was decided to abandon the "stealth". The FFG-62 does not have bulwarks in the middle. It has an open upper deck and a tripod mainmast - typical features of ships of the last century.
The Constellation's propulsion system will be similar to Italian frigates. The scheme is designated CODLAG (Combined diesel-electric and Gas). In the economic mode, 4 diesel generators provide energy to two propulsion electric motors. A gas turbine of the same type as on the Arleigh Burkes is connected at full speed.
It is curious that a variant of the same frigate for the French Navy uses a power plant according to the CODLOG scheme. The only difference of which is the impossibility of the simultaneous use of electric motors and a full-speed turbine.
The advantages of the CODLAG (CODLOG) scheme are fuel efficiency and less acoustic noise at low speed, which is important in anti-submarine search operations.
All this was achieved at the cost of complicating the design and deteriorating speed qualities. For the FFG-62, a value of 26 knots is given.
The main element that determines the importance of modern ships in the far sea zone is their radar system. Here we will focus on the promising AN / SPY-6 radar.
Its feature is modular design. Active phased arrays, like the Lego constructor, can be assembled from a different number of elements, designated RMA (Radar Module Assembly).
The SPY-6 version, which is planned to replace the radars on the old destroyers "Berk", has antennas consisting of 24 modules.
The illustration shows the flagship version of the SPY-6 for Burk Sub-Series III, consisting of 37 RMAs. As part of the radar, four such antennas are used, fixed on the walls of the superstructure.
For frigates "Constellation" (and aircraft carriers under construction), a "light" version of the radar has been proposed: a total of three antennas, each consisting of 9 modules.
If we assume that all the modules are identical, and the characteristics of the radar are related to the number of RMAs, then such a radical reduction in modules (27 instead of 148) should noticeably affect the combat capability of the frigates. In short: reducing the detection range, reducing the number of tracked targets and weapon guidance channels.
How many times - accurate data on this will not appear soon.
The rest is a modern multifunctional radar made using AFAR technology. Constellation is likely to receive the best radar system among all representatives of its class. The question is not in its combat qualities, but in the need for such a compromise ship for the US Navy.
FFG-62 is close in size to destroyers, but carries three times less missile ammunition. 32 vertical launchers with a mixed arsenal of Tomahawks and anti-aircraft missiles.
As a consolation measure, in the middle of the frigate, there is a platform with inclined launchers for launching 16 small anti-ship missiles. Probably only in theory in the picture. In peacetime, American ships sail partially disarmed in order to avoid unnecessary emergency situations.
Artillery weapons were sacrificed without even looking. The "main caliber" of the frigate was the 57-mm automatic gun "Bofors". Quite a strange choice given the size and purpose of the ship.
The frigate is not a speedboat for chasing drug courier boats. It is being built for operations in the open sea, where all surface targets are the same huge "vessels" with a displacement of hundreds and thousands of tons. Against which the destructive effect of 57-mm shells is absolutely negligible. Even a shot under the bow of an intruder from such a cannon looks unconvincing.
The only justification is close air defense. Despite the low rate of fire, such a gun is capable of fighting even high-speed anti-ship missiles. Due to the ability to open fire on detected missiles from a four times greater distance than traditional small-caliber assault rifles.
Installed in the bow of the "Bofors", coupled with the aft short-range air defense system RIM-116, provide the frigate with a closed circuit of the short-range air defense.
Aircraft weapons have also been cut. There is space on board for only one multipurpose helicopter of the Seahok family and an MQ-8C drone.
As can be understood from the published data, the frigate project is devoid of any unique fighting qualities. Only the destroyer "Berk", deteriorated in all respects.
The only exception was the emergence of a hydroacoustic station with an antenna lowered to different depths. True, at the cost of the complete loss of the sneaky sonar.
Pointless records
A long and colorful story about the enemy's "main warship" and its future satellite, the Constellation frigate, is smoothly coming to an end. And the audience must have made certain conclusions.
There is no more sense in the appearance of these frigates than in the construction of hundreds of destroyers. Redundant "double standard". Once invented by the British for confident superiority over the next strongest fleet.
Leave sinister intent and complex geopolitics behind. The idea of building frigates is unlikely to have any connection with the strengthening of China's naval power. The numbers "don't beat." Everyone knows about the success of the PRC. But where does a couple of dozen second-rank units have to do with it?
The FFG-62 was not chosen to replace large and expensive destroyers on the stocks. And therefore, it does not entail noticeable changes in the number of ships' personnel. Domestic logic does not work here.
The emergence of projects like the Constellation is a completely consistent decision for the fleet, in the history of which there were such precedents as Worcester and Alaska.
