Global Combat Ship

The Future Surface Combatant - program ( FSC) is a project of the British Navy to develop a new generation of missile frigates. They were originally supposed to replace the frigates of the Broadsword and the Duke class from 2013. The program was canceled in March 2005 in its original form and re-aligned, making the commissioning ceremony will be delayed by several years.

History

Triton

The program was created in 1994 under the name Future Escort Vessel into life. A total of 20 new frigates for anti-submarine combat (ASW ) should be developed. As part of the Strategic Defence Review in 1998 renamed the Future Surface Combatant. At the same time it was decided that the range of tasks the frigates to increase significantly as the defense of submarines increasingly lost importance since the end of the Cold War.

The core of the project formed the trimaran Triton, which was put into service in August 2000. With it should be tested whether the design is suitable for use as a trimaran warship. The highlight of the series of tests on board the ship was the first landing of a helicopter on a trimaran in September 2001. The development of a trimaran frigate was then known as the most significant development in naval shipbuilding for 100 years. Alternatively, however, a concept has been pursued, which provided for the development of a frigate based on the destroyers of the Daring class. The main advantage of this design were significantly lower development and construction costs.

Originally it was planned already in 2002 a final decision on the construction of new frigates to fell, but by a number of delays, the deadline for 2005 has been postponed. On 7 March 2005 the Ministry of Defence confirmed (MOD ) that they had canceled the project in its present form. The innovative trimaran concept will therefore not be pursued.

Global Corvette

After the demolition of the original concept, initially a concept of a consortium led by British shipyards Vosper Thornycroft and BAE SYSTEMS was at the center, which was called the Global Corvette. It looked right to build up to 26 corvettes. The designs for these corvettes ranged from conventional monohull design to trimaran concepts. The tonnage should be 1500-3000 tons. The cost per ship should, depending on size, between 70 and 200 million U.S. dollars, much less than those of the originally planned trimaran.

Distribution of the program

By the end of 2005, however, the Ministry of Defence announced that they now plan to replace the existing frigates by two different classes of ships, which was dropped and the design for the Global Corvette. The Broadsword class should be replaced from 2016 by the medium sized Vessel Derivative ( MVD), the Duke class from 2023 through the Versatile Surface Combatant (VSC ). Based on this division was a study of the Royal Navy, after which the frigates of the Duke class with appropriate modernization can be used until the end of the 2020s, economically and effectively even while the frigates of the Broadsword class already retired between 2015 and 2020 because of their age must be. The MVD should be paid based on an existing design, where the Daring class, while the VSC should be a completely new design.

Sustained Surface Combatant Capability ( S2C2 )

In October 2006, the Defense Department drew on the design of two different ship classes. The MVD and VSC program were merged again under the name Sustained Surface Combatant Capability ( S2C2 ). In January 2007, the MOD announced that now 18 frigates are to be developed on a common basis and entering into service from 2018. Ten of the frigates ( Project Title C1), should be designed with heavy armament for submarine hunting and missions against enemy units at sea and on land, while eight of the ships ( Project Title C2 ) are provided primarily for patrol and escort duty. Both classes will be based on a largely uniform design and differ mainly in the equipment. Thanks to this unification is to accelerate the development and cost savings.

In addition, a further element is integrated into the program. Under the project name C3 another class of ship is to be developed, which combines the properties of mine hunting boats and corvettes in itself and is so versatile. The plan is here for the time being the purchase of at least eight units as a replacement for the currently 16 mine hunting boats. In the long term the procurement of at least six other units as the successor of the River class and the Echo class is intended. To what extent the C3 - ships can be developed on a joint basis with the two frigate classes, is currently being evaluated. A final decision on all three classes of ships should not be made before 2012.