Coast Guard cutters as the new frigate?

[Randy Daytona]

Article today in The National Interest. If Trump wants to get the Navy to 350 ships, wonder if this will be a part of it?

The proposed HII frigate—which the company is primarily gearing toward the export market—is a 4,675 metric ton design that is 418-feet long and a beam of 54-feet. The vessel would have a crew size of 121 sailors and would have a range of more than 8,000 nautical miles or more than 60 days...In terms of sensors and weapons, the HII FF4923 would be well furnished. It would include a 3D rotating phased array radar, an EO/IR sensor, passive ECM, hull-mounted sonar and towed-array or variable depth sonar. It would be armed with a Mk-41 vertical launch system with 16 cells capable of carrying the Standard SM-2 and RIM-162 Evolved SeaSparrow Missile. It would also be equipped with ASROC anti-submarine rockets, eight Harpoon anti-ship missiles, a single triple torpedo launcher and a 76mm gun. HII officials said that their frigate design could be a directly replacement for the now retired Oliver Hazard Perry-class guided-missile frigate that was mainstay of the Navy’s fleet for decades.

http://nationalinterest.org/blog/th...-has-new-frigate-could-give-the-us-navy-19020

http://ingalls.huntingtoningalls.com/our-products/nsc/

 

[Uncle Fester]

Doubt it'd be the 'quick, easy' conversion HII is promising. I doubt the NSCs are built to the survivability and power generation requirements necessary, for one thing.

 

[Hair Warrior]

I think they're just going to create an "extended cab" LCS-1 that lengthens the overall keel and includes enough space for permanent mission modules that it won't require choosing one mission over another.

Ref: http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=2398

 

[picklesuit]

Plus getting a CG ship out past 6' of depth will ensure her crew can no longer walk to shore...

 

[azguy]

Doubt it'd be the 'quick, easy' conversion HII is promising.

Yep, no kidding. I'd love to see a cost estimate of this ship and the LCS/FF side by side. I doubt that even with the shit show that LCS has become, it would be any cheaper to buy NSCs.

I doubt the NSCs are built to the survivability and power generation requirements necessary, for one thing.

In fairness to NSC, LCS likely has equally poor survivability.

The big (potential) win for LCS is the ASW mission module with variable depth sonar. The article linked mentions that HII can offer that same capability on the "FF 4923," though, again, I'd bet the cost is just as nasty with HII as it is with Lockheed and General Dynamics.

 

[Uncle Fester]

In fairness to NSC, LCS likely has equally poor survivability.

Yeah, so it doesn't offer much in the way of an upgrade. If we were starting from scratch, an NSC-FF conversion might make sense. But shutting down two operating production lines for another design/yard that doesn't offer any improvement doesn't make much sense.