FMM multipurpose frigate
Class overview | |
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Builders: | Fincantieri |
Operators: | |
Preceded by: |
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Subclasses: | ASW, GP, various other subclasses |
Built: | 1991–2010 (Sieuxerr) |
In commission: | 1994–present |
Planned: |
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Completed: | 52 |
General characteristics | |
Type: | Frigate |
Displacement: |
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Length: |
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Beam: |
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Draft: |
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Propulsion: |
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Speed: | 30 knots |
Range: | 5,000 nm @ 19 knots |
Complement: |
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Sensors and processing systems: |
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Electronic warfare & decoys: |
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Armament: |
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Aircraft carried: |
The FMM ("Frigate Multi-Mission"; Merovingian: Frégate Multi-Mission; Sylvan: Fregata multi-missione) is a class of multi-mission frigates designed in the late-1980s and built throughout the 1990s and into the 2000s. The ships were designed to give EC states a common platform to replace "medium range" air-defense warships like the Durand de la Penne-class used by the Sylvan Navy and the Vercingétorix-class used by the Sieuxerrian Navy and also primarily ASW warships like the Maestrale-class and Charlemagne-class.
The FMM would spearhead a number of new sensors and weapon systems while also retaining legacy systems to help reduce costs and increase interoperability between allied nations. In the Sieuxerrian Navy it is known as the Aventurier-class and in the Sylvan Navy as the Mártir-Santo Mercurio-class.
Design
Armament
Guns
As designed, all ships would be produced with the Sorenoro-produced OTO 127mm L/54 Compact deck gun. The gun was selected over the older 100mm guns previously used to achieve a better surface-bombardment effect. The gun feeds from three twenty-two round drums for a total of sixty-six ready rounds, an additional 500 rounds are stored in the magazine.
The 127mm gun can fire at a rate of forty rounds per minute, giving it roughly one and a half minutes of sustained fire from its ready ammunition. The gun has a number of rounds it can use including high-explosive, illumination, as well, these rounds have a variety of fuzing options. The guns have an effective range of 15,000 meters in bombardment, and roughly half that when used in an anti-air role. New guided ammunition has been produced for these guns, allowing for high-precision fire missions in support of ground forces or in targeting other naval forces.
One part of close-in-defense is provided by two twin-30mm turrets. These guns are 30mm automatic cannons with selectable rates of fire. The turrets have their own fire control radars, but can take cueing from the external directors if needed. The turrets have a combined rof of 1,600 rounds per minute per gun. Each turret has 2,000 ready rounds. The turrets have been relatively unchanged since accepted, however newer targeting systems were added.
Additional guns are provided in the shape of AA-MAS M.82 13.2mm machine guns and 20mm autocannons for defense against small boats.
Missiles
The ships were built chiefly to utilize the new SYLVER vertical launch system and the Principle Area Defense System, or PADS. Various lengths of the SYLVER VLS were to be used for various missiles and to account for weight differences. The earlier ASW class would receive four 8-cell A-50, one 6-cell A-43, and one 6-cell A-35 block. The later AAW version would get six A-70 and one 8-cell A-43 block for VLS cells.
The AAW ships received more and longer VLS cells to fill a new role - cruise missile strike. As well, the much larger and longer-ranged Malafon III anti-submarine missile was to be used by the AAW ships.
On the ASW ships, the 6-cell A-35 block provides close-in-defense in conjunction with the 30mm CIWS. The A-35 cells quad pack the VT-1 Crotale for this purpose. For local defense, the 6-cell A-43 cells are for the Vipera VL. Initially the ships were to use the dual-pack Vipera 3, however a quad-packed solution was under development by this time and all ships were given provisions to take the Vipera 4 when it would be accepted into service.
AAW ships utilize two Goalkeeper launchers, of which each launcher has 17 missiles per launcher. An additional 34 missiles are carried as reloads. A new series of missiles, known as the Goalkeeper I, was accepted in 2010. The Goalkeeper I missile was designed to replace the older Crotales in the self-defense role. Instead of needing guidance from a director or illuminator, the Goalkeeper missile has an IR seeker on the missile itself. It can however take additional commands from a director or illuminator if needed.
For anti-ship duties, all the ships are able to take two 4-missile launchers. All ships can use the variety of the Entente standard anti-ship missiles. Sieuxerrian ships can use the Exocet or MM.90 anti-ship missiles, as well, they are able to, and do on occasion, use the MILAS anti-submarine missile.
Torpedoes
The ships are all equipped with 2 533mm torpedo tubes on both sides of the ship. They are designed to use the L5 and L17 series and later MU90 series of anti-submarine torpedoes. The torpedo magazine is shared with the helicopter torpedo magazine.
Sensors
Radars
On Batch I and II ships wide-area aerial search was done by the D-band DRBV-26 series of radar, originally these were DRBV-26C with a range of 300km, but quickly replaced by DRBV-26D radars with an instrumental range of some 400km. Both series of radars could track up to 64 targets. Following upgrades to the Batch I and II ships and standard on the new Batch III ships these radars are then replaced by the DRBV-27L, a variant of the larger DRBV-27A which is used by the Chacal-class of air defense frigates but with a shorter search range as its radar array is smaller. It shares much of the below-deck components to the DRBV-26C/D radars with a passive phased array antenna replacing the older antenna. The DRBV-27L also, like with the 27A, has the capacity to track up to 200 targets at once. The DRBV-26 series was used by previous classes of warships and was an effective, low-cost wide-area search radar.
Sylvan ships at first used the DRBV-26 series for their wide-area search, however in the early 2010s new ships were equipped with the Selex RAN-40L radar. The radar boasts the ability to track 500 targets and has an effective range upto 400 kilometers. Only the GP subclass is equipped with them, the older ships retaining the DRBV-26C radar sets.
Batch I and II ships use S-band multi-function radar 2D Sea Tiger Mk2, known in the Sieuxerrian Navy as DRBV 15C. The DRBV 15C radar has an instrumental range of 130km. Batch III ships had the Sea Tiger radar removed in favor of the C-band Kronos Grand Naval radar. The Kronos Grand Naval features greatly improved capabilities over the Sea Tiger, including detection of various threats including high-speed sea-skimming anti-ship missiles, or small fast-attack craft. The range of the Kronos radar is 250 kilometers.
There are also two helicopter and navigation search radars and also fire control radars.
Ships in class
Name | Hull no. | Builder | Laid down | Launched | Commissioned | Home port | Status | |
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Sieuxerrian Navy | ||||||||
ASW | ||||||||
Le Hardi | D651 | Arsenal de Neons, Neons | 1991 | 1992 | 1994 | Vaudouan Naval Base, Sieuxerr | Active | |
Fleuret | D652 | Chantiers Navals Courtillers, Courtillers | 1992 | 1993 | 1995 | AVA Joint Base Portcullia, Portcullia | Active | |
Épée | D653 | Arsenal de Vaudouan, Vaudouan | 1993 | 1994 | 1996 | Neons Naval Base, Sieuxerr | Active | |
Mameluk | D654 | Arsenal de Neons, Neons | 1994 | 1995 | 1997 | Briquemont Naval Base, Sieuxerr | Active | |
Casque | D655 | Arsenal de Neons, Neons | 1994 | 1995 | 1997 | AVA Joint Base Portcullia, Portcullia | Active | |
Lansquenet | D656 | Arsenal de Vaudouan, Vaudouan | 1995 | 1996 | 1998 | Vaudouan Naval Base, Sieuxerr | Active | |
Le Flibustier | D657 | Arsenal de Vaudouan, Vaudouan | 1995 | 1996 | 1998 | Vaudouan Naval Base, Sieuxerr | Active, | |
Le Corsaire | D658 | Chantiers Navals Courtillers, Courtillers | 1995 | 1996 | 1998 | Vaudouan Naval Base, Sieuxerr | Active, | |
AAW | ||||||||
Aigle | D661 | Arsenal de Neons, Neons | 1996 | 1998 | 2000 | AVA Joint Base Portcullia, Portcullia | Active | |
Vautour | D662 | Arsenal de Neons, Neons | 1996 | 1998 | 2000 | Neons Naval Base, Sieuxerr | Active | |
Albatros | D663 | Arsenal de Vaudouan, Vaudouan | 1998 | 2000 | 2002 | Briquemont Naval Base, Sieuxerr | Active | |
Gerfaut | D664 | Arsenal de Vaudouan, Vaudouan | 1998 | 2000 | 2002 | Vaudouan Naval Base, Sieuxerr | Active | |
Milan | D665 | Arsenal de Vaudouan, Vaudouan | 1998 | 2000 | 2002 | Vaudouan Naval Base, Sieuxerr | Active | |
Épervier | D667 | Chantiers Navals Courtillers, Courtillers | 1998 | 2000 | 2002 | Vaudouan Naval Base, Sieuxerr | Active | |
Le Fantasque | D668 | Arsenal de Neons, Neons | 2002 | 2004 | 2006 | Vaudouan Naval Base, Sieuxerr | Active | |
L'Audacieux | D669 | Arsenal de Neons, Neons | 2002 | 2004 | 2006 | Vaudouan Naval Base, Sieuxerr | Active | |
Le Malin | D670 | Arsenal de Neons, Neons | 2002 | 2004 | 2006 | Vaudouan Naval Base, Sieuxerr | Active | |
Le Terrible | D671 | Chantiers Navals Courtillers, Courtillers | 2002 | 2004 | 2006 | Vaudouan Naval Base, Sieuxerr | Active | |
Le Triomphant | D672 | Arsenal de Vaudouan, Vaudouan | 2006 | 2008 | 2010 | Vaudouan Naval Base, Sieuxerr | Active | |
L'Indomptable | D673 | Arsenal de Vaudouan, Vaudouan | 2006 | 2008 | 2010 | Vaudouan Naval Base, Sieuxerr | Active | |
Royal Sylvan Navy | ||||||||
ASW | ||||||||
Mártir-Santo Mercurio | MSM | Fincanteiri | 1993 | 1994 | 1996 | , Sylva | Active | |
Mártir-Santo Expedito | MSE | Fincanteiri | 1994 | 1995 | 1997 | , Sylva | Active | |
Mártir-Santo Beso | MSB | Fincanteiri | 1996 | 1997 | 1999 | , Sylva | Active | |
Santo Agostino Roscelli | SAR | Fincanteiri | 1998 | 1999 | 2001 | , Sylva | Active | |
Santo Amabilis de Auvernia | SAA | Fincanteiri | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | , Sylva | Active | |
GP | ||||||||
Santo Albino de Angers | SAN | Fincanteiri | 2002 | 2003 | 2005 | , Sylva | Active | |
Santo Fileto | SFI | Fincanteiri | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | , Sylva | Active | |
Santo Margarita Burguesa | SMB | Fincanteiri | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | , Sylva | Active | |
Santo Ulrico de Augsburgo | SUA | Fincanteiri | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | , Sylva | Active | |
Santo José | SAJ | Fincanteiri | 2010 | 2012 | 2013 | , Sylva | Active | |
Maracaibean Navy | ||||||||
ASW | ||||||||
GP | ||||||||
Khalistani Navy | ||||||||
Batavaian Navy | ||||||||