Naval Institute Proceedings and beyond. Nothing sinks a new shipbuilding program faster than propagating unrealistic expectations about platform schedule and price. 0000011218 00000 n I evaluate national security threats and propose solutions. 0000022226 00000 n Once the base hull is approved and passes various tests, then, on a flexible, commodious ship like the FREMM, the Navy can make additions and variations relatively easily. About Aquitaine-class FREMM Frigates Atlantic Ocean – 24 January 2020 – FREMM Normandie during her long cruise. O’Rourke believes the first new frigates will cost somewhere in the vicinity of $1.47 billion. 0000006520 00000 n trailer <]/Prev 696161/XRefStm 2242>> startxref 0 %%EOF 1048 0 obj <>stream 0000436937 00000 n In October, the Congressional Budget Office said the Navy might have underestimated the cost by up to 40 percent and the cost could be as high as $12.3 billion for the first ten frigates. Similarly with the French FREMM frigates, the space located backwards of the current silos allows for 16 more missiles, and specifically two A70 silos for land-attack/cruise missiles in the future. With the first FREMM, at least $400 million will go toward warfighting gear. 0000010624 00000 n 0000013524 00000 n But now, after the contract is signed, the U.S. Navy needs to shift from the contentment of awarding the “right” shipbuilder’s hull and get about the hard work of keeping the program alive. The decision-makers who developed the current frigate cost estimates will largely be gone by 2026. 0000004359 00000 n Littoral combat ships were originally conceived as part of a radical concept of operations : fast and customizable combatants that could operate in near-shore environments and meet a range of missions from minesweeping to anti-submarine warfare. 0000011758 00000 n 0000002675 00000 n The estimate seems, at best, optimistic. The Navy, of course, is already likely eying the FREMM’s commodious margin for additional warfighting capability—all at additional cost. It’s terrible for any shipbuilding program to endure. Responding to media reports about a bid proposed by French Naval Group and Italian Fincantieri, offering to build 15 frigates based on the FREMM design for a fixed price of […] executive for naval shipbuilder Austal USA, helping deliver Littoral Naval shipbuilding observers are already sounding the alarm. The FREMM (Fregata Europea Multi-Missione) frigate combines a sleek multi-mission, stealthy hull form with the endurance (6,500 nautical miles) of a long-distance performer. 0000003754 00000 n !�`8i��OH ���ZUU%��ꢋ��T��iŪ�,Q+��*!��v�J�c�4��^����w�9�; 4 ��V��w����@o���_~�lש�ԊQ-0�BM��ٽ�΂1�t�Q�ه?���g9^hu�Ɂ@��-�ҵ����۪ݮ�:MQ�OP����m�H:C-v �`l�h�w�Pjd ���%�������uh�Gr �$�O!X�>n'���ƌ�k�\�a�iJ배m�m�s׺4�(y��|&����J����#�������s�}Qm�[V�G������X,v�i"�_�.^���6��b�r(�[d��T�_���%��U���,�+�������n�ډMi�����,���.�"����hh썤�w���Y�;8�LkzϘwHQe)����2���htw���j�w0T,7'SSS.�06J�|>ߞ�\�[�>_Z܄����Ո�����)�l&��z%�)���G����C��oQ�t���{Ĥ �ODܛq=*w6��og�j �A��%LHx��C��{�uB��-S�0(s/�k���a�t�Jb0 s%�y��|�WQ�U�}F%J��] ���?����K`L0 One way to sink a Frigate is to use a bad estimate. But the Navy is running out of time for “business as usual” shipbuilding. I offer blunt, uncompromising guidance on national security solutions, bringing complex security issues and oft-neglected defense topics to the attention of interested. h�|SKlW��f��ID��31;N&�8��|� ! ... a foreign consortium is offering the country a way to build a fleet of warships at a guaranteed price … It would not be a surprise to see the new frigates will … A total of 27 FREMM were to be constructed - 17 for France and 10 for Italy - with additional aims to seek exports, however budget cuts and changing requirements has seen this number drop significantly for France, while the order for Italy remain… 0000000016 00000 n They even wanted to do a "lease to buy" program, which the Germans were not happy with. Beating the original estimate is a big deal. This, of course, is where shipbuilding gets tricky. 0000002443 00000 n O’Rourke believes the first new frigates will cost somewhere in the vicinity of $1.47 billion. U.S. Navy. The ship carries a crew of 133, but bunks for 200. There is no penalty for low-balling a procurement estimate. 0000043282 00000 n 0000005839 00000 n Since then, the LM2500+G4 has been selected for the Italian Navy’s FREMM frigates and PPA multipurpose offshore patrol ships; the first of seven PPA’s will be commissioned in … But does it cost too much? The Italo-French FREMM multipurpose frigate Aquitaine sails off the coast of Lorient, western France, on Nov. 27, 2012. If the Navy had the guts to say—at this early stage—that their new frigate would likely cost about as much as an early-flight Arleigh Burke destroyer, and then, in a few years, ended up beating that estimate, it would do a lot for America, the Navy and the new frigate program itself. Fully equipped, an Iver Huitfeldt frigate costs the equivalent of $340 million, Rear Adm. Olsen said. National security aside, delay could lead to a political confrontation as well. U.S. 1005 0 obj <> endobj xref In May 2004, the French Ministry of Defense made public the decision to use gas turbine engines to power the 5,500-metric-ton platform multi-mission frigates in the FREMM program. NurPhoto via Getty Images. 0000435806 00000 n The FREMM has more AA missiles and can carry cruise missiles, but the radars are the same. Using the general rule of thumb that, in naval shipbuilding, unit procurement costs are “more or less proportional to their displacements,” O’Rourke wondered how the new FREMM frigate—a ship that is about 76% of a Flight III Arleigh Burke class destroyer’s displacement (or size)— can be estimated to cost about 49% less. But those refits don’t hit the all-important shipbuilding account, and the Navy dodges an embarrassing budget bullet. In short, a lot of work has already been done to define the FREMM, and with over 15 FREMM variants in service for four other navies, a good amount of risk has already been driven out of the platform. Most of that, about $207 million, goes to weapons, … 0000006635 00000 n 0000031916 00000 n 0000007487 00000 n A variant of the Italian FREMM is likely to be the next Navy frigate. 0000488980 00000 n They did their job—developing an estimate that magically priced out the new frigate to barely half the cost of a brand new Flight III Arleigh Burke destroyer. Three original variants of the FREMM were proposed; an anti-submarine variant (ASW) and a general-purpose variant (GP) and a land-attack variant (AVT) to replace the existing classes of frigates within the French and Italian navies. 0000010526 00000 n by current global standards, the FFG(X) will be large for a frigate. ... a foreign consortium is offering the country a way to build a fleet of warships at a guaranteed price … But then again, if naval estimators came out a few years ago and declared outright that the new frigate would likely cost about 1.5 billion dollars, America’s new frigate would have ended up being a de-scoped, simplified Arleigh Burke variant. 1005 44 The ship carries a crew of 133, but bunks for 200. It would not be a surprise to see the new frigates will settle into a per-hull cost of more than a billion dollars apiece—more than half of what the Navy pays for a brand new Flight III Arleigh Burke destroyer today. Burke retirements ramp up quickly; by 2028, four to five Burkes a year will be aging out of the fleet. The idea would be, that, at later refits—and at a likely higher cost—the missing capability can be added in. The LM2500+G4 marine gas turbine was introduced in 2012 with the commissioning of the French Navy’s FREMM multipurpose frigate Aquitaine (also a 10-ship program). It is a cost effective 4000 ton multi-role frigate that is designed for escort as well as independent operations. The FREMM is designed for 32 VLS cells (only 16 fitted by the Italians) and may be able to accommodate 48 cells. 0000005800 00000 n This is a new class of frigates for the Chinese Navy which is being built in large numbers. Britain's new Global Combat Ship is a marvel of engineering. Accounting for the FREMM’s greater size, additional structural requirements and overall hull strengthening needs, the additional $110 million in the frigate budget will be asked to do an enormous amount. discuss naval matters at NextNavy.com or write about the Navy, Canada will not be be accepting an outside offer which promised up to $32 billion in savings on the construction of the Canadian Surface Combatant fleet. A little bit of exuberance about schedule and cost right now is fine, but it is worth remembering that America’s “next-gen” frigate program is far from the norm in naval shipbuilding. The New U.S. Frigate Will Cost More Than Expected. Trieste/Rome, 16 April 2015 - Orizzonte Sistemi Navali S.p.A., a joint venture between Fincantieri (51%) and Finmeccanica (49%), and prime contractor for Italy within the international Italian-French FREMM - Multi Mission European Frigates - program, was notified by OCCAR (the Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation) of the option exercise for the construction of … 0000002242 00000 n Frigate's, North Palm Beach: See 667 unbiased reviews of Frigate's, rated 3.5 of 5 on Tripadvisor and ranked #8 of 58 restaurants in North Palm Beach. Previously, I served as an Fincantieri Marine has based their FFG(X) proposal on this hullform China’s relentless maritime expansionism demands that America’s future naval ships be built on time and on budget. If the shipbuilder runs into problems with cost on an easily-upgraded ship, it is far simpler for the Navy to short needed “government-furnished equipment” and allow the shipyard to deliver a functional but “bare-bones” hull seemingly “at cost.” In essence, the Navy gets a workable hull, but it is an incomplete warship, unready for warfighting. Fincantieri, which will build its frigate at its Marinette Marine shipyard in Wisconsin, based its FFG(X) design on the FREMM multi-mission frigate … 0000002638 00000 n 0000004868 00000 n Angeles Times, The New York Times, the Naval War College Review, the If their estimates turned out to be wrong, they won’t care. The Group’s proposal is based on the FREMM frigate platform, globally recognized as the most technologically advanced and the base of a 10-unit program awarded to Fincantieri for the Italian Navy – the last vessel is … Some post-award optimism is OK. ���n���4���C. 0000015252 00000 n As any new U.S. naval shipbuilding program has shifted from “best-case” PowerPoint slides to actual production, delay has been the norm. h��ѡ 0ð4�����7 But as of today the Italian Navy is using that space for the crew accommodation. Options for up to 10 ships could make the contract worth up … 0000012266 00000 n Right now, the Navy is sounding confident about cost, estimating that the average price per hull (the basic components of the ship without the warfighting gear included) will be about $781 million dollars apiece. 0000008300 00000 n The U.S. Navy has issued a briefing on a new fleet of frigates set to enter service in the mid-2020s. The first ship ordered in 2020 is expected to cost $1.28 billion, according to budget documents. The lead ship of the class, Aquitaine, was commissioned in November 2012 by the French Navy. And that means being brutally honest about cost and schedule. France took delivery of is fifth FREMM … 0000436976 00000 n Both Aster 15 and 30 missiles featuring the same terminal dart. That’s when America’s new frigates will needed in real numbers. ... A model of an anti-submarine warfare focused FREMM frigate design. A FREMM frigate sails off the coast of France in 2016. Canada will not be be accepting an outside offer which promised up to $32 billion in savings on the construction of the Canadian Surface Combatant fleet. Contacts between Greece and France will begin initially at a military level, starting in February the newspaper explains, citing well informed sources. Now, the tactic of loosely disassociating warfighting gear from the basic hull cost is smart. The French-Italian team directly offered the Defense Ministry an off-the-shelf version model of their FREMM frigate that would be built at Canada’s Irving Shipyard, CSC prime contractor at a fixed fee of $24 billion and in a shortened time frame, Canada’s National Post reported last week. The vessel will have a length of 496 feet, a … 0000014648 00000 n navies (FreMM is its acronym in the French and Italian languages). With the selection of a FREMM (Fregata Europea Multi-Missione) Frigate as the basis for the U.S. Navy’s future small combatant, the Navy’s surface community is justifiably happy to have a ship it understands—a basic “monohull with margin”—entering the fleet. Starting in February the newspaper explains, citing well informed sources potential easy! The vicinity of $ 1.47 billion the bergamini class frigate bunks for 200 the GP caries! Additional warfighting capability—all at additional cost of 133, but bunks for 200 terminal. 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