France, has built a warship designed to fight drone swarms, take out ballistic missiles and hunt submarines.
The FDI (Frigate Defence and Intervention) is designed to launch a drone force of fast combat boats, sub-hunters and attack craft, making it the kind of vessel that could take on the kind of challenge facing the Gulf states when Iran struck at its neighbours after it was attacked by the US and Israel.
The ships are being built at pace, with the first scheduled to be commissioned by summer. The National was given exclusive access to the defence firm Naval Group’s dockyard in Lorient, western France, where, using advanced techniques, it can build two frigates a year.
The FDI has, proponents say, one of the most sophisticated counter-drone systems on a warship with the ability to regularly update its Sea Fire radar software.
There are discussions over the warships being bought by Gulf countries to tackle Iran’s Kilo-class submarines or swarms of its Shahed-136 kamikaze drones - as witnessed this week - as well as fast attack boats that can rampage around tankers or warships.
Subs, missiles and torpedoes
Like all frigates, it is multi-role – hunting submarines, defending against air attack and striking other ships, but the 4,500-tonne Amiral Ronarc'h class frigates would go beyond that.
“It is the best ship capable of facing all the threats in modern warfare with a very big growth capability to adapt to new threats,” Herve Boy, a former French navy commander and builder Naval Group’s operational expert, told The National.
The Naval Focus publication has also noted its Sea Fire radar that gives it 360º surveillance and “resilience against saturation attacks” which was a “step-change in capability for a vessel of this size”.
The system also gives FDI “cyber resilience by design” that recognises “cyber-attack as an operational threat rather than a purely technical concern”.
In addition, the FDI’s inverted bow – something ultra-modern super yachts have also adapted – gives it much greater stability by reducing “slamming” in big seas.
In recent trials it has held to 20 knots in a sea state seven – nine metre waves and near gale-force winds – with the bow allowing it to absorb shocks and less pounding or stress on its internal structures. The frigates are also capable of rapidly accelerating to 25 knots in less than two minutes.
Guns and missiles
Nestling in its forward section are vertical launch cells capable of firing 32 Aster 15 or 30 interceptors designed to knock out aircraft, ballistic and cruise missiles in flight.
Eight MBDA Exocet missiles await midships to launch at hostile warships. They can travel at 1,200kph with a range of 250km carrying a 165kg warhead. There are four torpedo tubes that can fire the MU90 lightweight torpedoes at submarines – manned or unmanned, alongside an anti-submarine helicopter and 20mm cannons.
If all that fails to halt the enemy, its 76mm Super Rapid OTO Melara main gun can take out anti-ship missiles, pounding away at two rounds a second.
Naval Group, part-owned by the French government and Thales, is also developing the Modular Multipurpose Launcher capable of launching the Martlet missile. MML can hit targets on air, sea or land, as well as firing depth charges, small drones and decoys.
It has a crew of 125 and can carry special forces teams with Rhib fast boats or alternatively two of the new Seaquest unmanned boats that can help hunt for submarines or fire missiles at threats.
But it is the FDI’s adaptation to drone warfare that makes it stand out.
There are many examples of sophisticated arms being defeated by cheap off-the-shelf weapons in Ukraine’s grinding war. A case in point is Kyiv’s Sea Baby $250,000 attack drone destroying a Russia submarine in port worth $400 million in December.
Behind the FDI's bridge, where a bank of screens helps fight conventional threats, is a room containing the SETIS combat management system built for multi-contact scenarios from drone swarms to close-in attacks, allowing the captain to deal with the bigger picture.
Paperless plans
Gone are the days of large, unwieldy architectural plans instead replaced by iPads and flatscreens used by its highly-skilled workforce – specialist welders train for eight years to work autonomously.
It also includes a “halo lens” that allows workers to see precisely the design plans, measurements and fittings by a hologram that changes depending on where you look. It also saves 20 per cent in time without having to conduct time-consuming tape-measure readings.
And 80 per cent of the ships are assembled inside the giant warehouses saving further time when they are launched into Lorient’s waters on the Atlantic coast.
That is why three were in the water for The National’s visit, with three more being assembled ashore, ready for the full spectrum of naval warfare, all soon able to operate for 50 days at a distance of 5,000 nautical miles.
Overseas sales
The first of five French frigates, each estimated to cost $770 million, will become operational this summer joining the fleet that operates as far away as Tahiti, the Indian Ocean, the Atlantic and Caribbean plus a docking point in Abu Dhabi. Four others have been ordered by the Greek navy, with two ready to go to sea.
Given France’s close defence links with the UAE – it supplies the Emirates with Rafale jets, Leclerc tanks and two of Naval Group’s smaller Gowind corvettes – Naval Group is upbeat that there will be talks about the FDI. Discussions have already taken place with Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Scandinavian countries.
“We are open to discussion, especially to countries we have sold ships to before,” said Mr Boy.
