Guided Missile Frigates: Constellation Class

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CONSTELLATION CLASS FRIGATES

The Navy unveils name for new class of guided-missile frigates
Details at:
https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-nav ... OFnvVMvedk

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Navy Boss Talks 'Joint Strike Frigate' Concept After Calls To Build Four Frigates A Year

The Navy's new frigate could be among the most realistic ways of getting anywhere close to realizing the service's huge fleet ambitions.
Secretary of the Navy Kenneth Braithwaite has raised the possibility of his service running a multi-national frigate program together with allies and partners, in the same general vein as the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, a notional effort he dubbed the "Joint Strike Frigate." This came just days after Robert O'Brien, President Donald Trump's National Security Advisor, said he saw a need for the U.S. Navy to get more frigates, faster, pointing to the possibility of the service acquiring more of its future Constellation class ships, previously known as the FFG(X), than it plans to buy at present, at least publicly.
Braithwaite made his comments yesterday at an event the U.S. Navy Memorial organization held as part of its SITREP Speaker Series. O'Brien had offered his remarks while speaking to workers at Marinette Marine, a subsidiary of Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri, in Marinette, Wisconsin, earlier in the week.

Continues at:
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/3 ... NuJ0ktxhHo

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U.S. Navy names new frigates ‘Constellation class’
December 6, 2020
Secretary of the U.S. Navy Kenneth J. Braithwaite announced USS Constellation (FFG62) as the name for the first ship and class of the new guided missile frigates.
The design is a variant of Fincantieri Marinette Marine’s FREMM multipurpose frigate.

“As the first in her class, these ships will now be known as the Constellation Class frigates, linking them directly to the original six frigates of our Navy, carrying on the traditions of our great service which have been passed down from generation to generation of Sailors,” said Braithwaite.

“While providing an unmatched capability and survivability for the 21st Century, Constellation Class Frigates will honor our Navy’s historic beginnings as we continue to operate around the world in today’s era of Great Power Competition.”

The Navy wants to procure the first FFG(X) in FY2020, the next 18 at a rate of two per year in FY2021-FY2029, and the 20th in FY2030.

The U.S. Navy’s proposed FY2020 budget requests $1,281.2 million for the procurement of the first FFG(X). Additionally, the U.S Navy’s FY2020 budget submission shows that subsequent ships in the class are estimated by the Navy to cost roughly $900 million each in then-year dollars.

Recently, the second ship in the class was named USS Congress.

“To honor and recognize the work [Congress] and your staff do every day to support our Sailors and Marines, I take pleasure in announcing that a future frigate will carry the name Congress,” said Braithwaite.

“The Department of the Navy looks to you for the strong oversight and partnership that has enabled our maritime strength ever since Congress authorized the construction of our first six ships — the mighty American frigates of 1794.”

Source UKDJ

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Navy: First Constellation Frigate Will Start Fabrication This Year as Shipyard Expands

See:
https://news.usni.org/2021/01/15/navy-f ... M4QqbeEVkI

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Here’s the latest on the US Navy’s new Constellation-class frigate

The U.S. Navy's rendering of the newly awarded FFG(X). (U.S. Navy)
Correction: The follow-on ships in the Constellation class will cost between $850 million and $950 million in constant-year 2018 dollars.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Navy’s next-generation frigate, the Constellation class, is a do-or-die effort for the service and a critical test of its return to building ships around existing technologies rather than designing them around technologies in development.

In a roundtable with reporters Friday, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday said the Constellation class will be the model for how the Navy designs and builds the next class of destroyer, the so-called DDG Next. And for that reason, the Navy has to get it right.

“I can’t afford for FFG(X) to be anything but coming off a world-class production line that produces a ship that we can count on,” Gilday told reporters in comments ahead of the annual Surface Navy Association symposium, using an acronym for the service’s future frigate. “That will also inform how we’re going to design and build DDG Next. Those have to be world-class efforts that deliver on time, on budget, with the right capacity, with the right capabilities that we need.”

The idea behind FFG(X) was to build a best-in-breed ship with all the latest technologies on a smaller platform for less money than it would cost to build a comparable number of Flight III DDGs. The ship will use a scaled-down version of the Flight III’s SPY-6 air and missile defense radar, a generational leap over the SPY-1 radar that makes up most of the surface combatant fleet today. The idea behind DDG Next will be to build a ship around a power source sufficient for electronic warfare and laser weapons of the future, which will place enormous and complicated demands on the ship’s power systems.

The Navy awarded the next-generation frigate to Fincantieri in April 2020, and it will be built at the Marinette Marine shipyard in Wisconsin, where the Lockheed Martin-designed Freedom-class littoral combat ship is being built.


As the Navy gets closer to beginning construction on the lead ship, USS Constellation, more details are coming into focus. Here is the latest information on the ship class and what the Navy expects to build:

Vital statistics:

Cost: lead ship $1.28 billion; follow-on ships between $850 million and $950 million in constant-year 2018 dollars.
Length: 496 feet
Beam: 65 feet
Fully loaded displacement: 7,291 tons
Propulsion: combined diesel-electric and gas
Major engineering equipment: one gas turbine; two electric propulsion motors; four ship service diesel generators; one auxiliary propulsion unit
Crew accommodation: 200
Expected service life: 25 years
Armament:

MK 110 57mm gun
32-cell MK 41 Vertical Launching System
16 Naval Strike Missiles
MK 49 Guided Missile Launching System
Four MK 53 MOD 9 Decoy Launching System
Two AN-SLQ-32(V)6 Shipboard Electronic Warfare System
One MH-60R Seahawk helicopter plus a UAV
Aegis Baseline 10 Combat System
AN/SPY-6(V3) Phased Array Radar
Timeline:

Start of construction: first quarter of 2022
Keel laid: first quarter of 2023
Launch: first quarter of 2025
Delivery: third quarter of 2026

From:
https://www.defensenews.com/digital-sho ... s-frigate/

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Report to Congress on Constellation-class Frigate Program (FFG-62)
September 28 2021
The following is the Sept. 15, 2021 Congressional Research Service report, Navy Constellation (FFG-62) Class Frigate (Previously FFG[X]) Program: Background and Issues for Congress.

See - https://news.usni.org/2021/09/28/report ... ccG8-9NIXE

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New Diagram Details How The Navy’s Frigate Will Differ From Its Italian Parent’s Design

AU.S. government report released earlier this month includes the best look to date at exactly how the U.S. Navy's future Constellation-class frigates will differ from the Italian design from which they are derived. A core feature of this acquisition program, originally known as FFG(X), was the selection of a ship based on an existing, in-production warship in order to help keep costs and risks of delays low. It is now known that the Constellations will be longer and wider and displace hundreds of tons more than their "parent" design, among other changes in the hullform, superstructure, and internal configuration.

Continues, including images etc., at - https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/4 ... yUjVraPeKI

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BAE Systems has received a $26 million contract to equip the U.S. Navy’s Constellation class frigates with the fully-automatic 57mm Mk 110 naval gun.


The contract, awarded earlier this month, includes engineering support and calls for two Mk 110s for the USS Constellation and USS Congress.

According to BAE in a news release:
“The Mk 110 gun system, known internationally as the Bofors 57 Mk 3, is the deck gun of choice for the Constellation class. It is a multi-mission, medium-calibre shipboard weapon, effective against air, surface, or ground threats without requiring multiple round types. The system is capable of firing up to 220 rounds per minute at an effective range of more than nine nautical miles using BAE Systems’ six-mode programmable, pre-fragmented, and proximity-fused (3P) ammunition.”

It is understood that the contract also includes providing a Mk 110 system to the U.S. Coast Guard’s third Argus Class Offshore Patrol Cutter, USCGC Ingham. Deliveries are expected to begin in 2023.

“The selection of the Mk 110 for the U.S. Navy’s Constellation class frigates signifies confidence in the gun system and its ability to meet current and future needs in shipboard defense,” said Brent Butcher, vice president of the weapon systems product line at BAE Systems

“The Mk 110 gun system provides this next-generation frigate with the continued performance that our surface fleet has come to expect from its intermediate calibre guns.”

BAE add that the 57mm Mk 110 is currently in service on the Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship and the U.S. Coast Guard’s National Security Cutter.

“To date, BAE Systems is providing 39 Mk 110 guns to the Navy and 15 to the Coast Guard. Worldwide, 103 Mk 110/57 Mk 3 naval gun systems are under contract with nine nations.”

From Tim, source UKDJ

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For Navy’s new frigate, design changes carry risks and rewards


Analysts say straying too far from a parent design can cause problems, but so can being too faithful to it.

Nearly every time a flag officer or senior civilian in the US Navy has been called to testify before lawmakers about the Constellation-class (FFG-62) frigate recently, there is one talking point that always comes up.

The use of a “parent design” — modeling the new ship’s hull form off a pre-existing, already proven vessel — will reduce the risk the Navy assumes when it begins construction, they say.

That idea has been at the core of the service’s response to lawmakers who raise concerns about the new vessel repeating the trials and tribulations of the Littoral Combat Ship, a program beaten to a pulp by Congress and analysts alike for the delays and cost overruns it suffered.

Continues, at length, at - https://breakingdefense.com/2022/01/fre ... k_LUiiDNYc

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First Constellation Frigate Delayed At Least a Year, Schedule Assessment ‘Ongoing’

ARLINGTON, Va. – The first Constellation-class guided-missile frigate will deliver at least a year late due in large part to workforce shortfalls at the Wisconsin yard where it’s built, USNI News has learned.

The service has briefed Congress that the future USS Constellation (FFG-62) could deliver in 2027 and that shipyard Fincantieri Marinette Marine has undergone an independent review to assess the delay, a legislative source confirmed to USNI News this week.

During a program briefing on Thursday at the annual Surface Navy Symposium, the deputy manager for the frigate program acknowledged potential schedule slippage in the program due to the workforce issues. When asked for a ballpark on the schedule, Andy Bosak told USNI News the assessment is “ongoing.”

“We do have challenge in the schedule. We are working that. Fincantieri has communicated to us of challenges within the schedule,” Bosak told USNI News.

“We are doing our analysis, as the Navy does, of doing deep dives of causes and effects and various different levers of which we can pull within that shipyard,” he added. “And we need to, as a program, work with our leadership, kind of figure out what we want to do. And from that, we will make that assessment as to what the actual schedule impact is of where we are. And that effort is ongoing.”

Following an earlier version of this post, Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro announced a review of Navy shipbuilding, citing concerns with the frigate program and the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine program. NAVSEA head Vice Adm. Jim Downey and assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition Nickolas Guertin will lead the evaluation.

“The American public should know that the Department of the Navy is committed to developing, delivering, and sustaining the finest warfighting capability to our Sailors and Marines,” Del Toro said in a statement. “We will continue to work with industry and all other stakeholders to strengthen our national shipbuilding capacity, both naval and commercial.”

Fincantieri Marinette Marine is short by several hundred people across both the blue and white-collar workforce, Bosak confirmed.

Continues at - https://news.usni.org/2024/01/11/first- ... nt-ongoing - LFT

[Sounds familar.]