Tuesday, November 5, 2024

Heavier and much better armed, what will the new Japanese FFM-AAW frigate look like?

The manufacturer Mitsubishi Heavies Industries, or MHI, presented the model that will succeed it, called frigate FFM-AAW by the manufacturer, and New-FFM by the Japanese authorities, on the occasion of the Indopacific Expo 2023 show. While the 8th unit of the Mogami class is due to be launched in the coming days, the new frigate will be longer, heavier and above all much better armed than the ships to which they will succeed.

Launched in 2015, the Japanese 30FF program aimed to develop a multi-purpose frigate dedicated to low to medium intensity engagement, close in concept to the US Navy's LCS, to replace its light destroyers and escort destroyer classes. Asagiri and Abukuma.

Like the American LCS, the 30FF was to carry limited armament, with a 127 mm cannon, two light RWS cannons, a SeaRAM CIWS system and an SH-60L helicopter for anti-submarine warfare.

Mogami-class frigates of the Japanese Navy

In 2017, however, the original concept was abandoned in favor of 30 DX program, which will give birth to the Mogami class. 133 meters long with a loaded tonnage of 5 tonnes, the new frigate carried, in addition to the systems which were to arm the 200FF, 30 Type 8 anti-ship missiles, as well as 17 Mk2 VLS systems for 41 silos, armed with Type 16 anti-aircraft missiles Long-range Chusam, and Type 03 anti-submarine missiles.

Mogami-class frigate Japanese Navy
The Japanese Navy will implement 12 Mogami-class frigates by 2025

Initially, the FFM program was to involve 22 ships. In addition, for budgetary reasons, the first eight units did not receive, during construction, the 2 VLS Mk41 systems planned, even if they should quickly receive them in the years to come.

Production of Japanese frigates began in October 2019 with the keel of the first unit, the JS Mogami, together with the second frigate, the JS Kumano, with an annual production of two ships. The JS Mogami was launched in March 2021, and was admitted to service in April 2022, a few days after the JS Kumani. Since then, the rate of 2 new frigates per year has been respected.

In December 2022, faced with the hardening of relations with Beijing, but also with Moscow and Pyongyang, and the threats that these countries represent for Tokyo, the Japanese authorities announced that the Mogami class will be limited to 12 ships, and will be followed by a new class, also of 12 frigates and then called “new-FFM”, responding better to threats.

MHI’s FFM-AAW frigate with enhanced anti-aircraft capabilities

This new class was presented by MHI at the indopacific Expo, which was held earlier this week in Sydney, Australia. The new ship turns out to be, in fact, much more formidable than the one it will succeed.

Frigate FFM-AAW
The new FFM-AAW frigate presented by MHI at the IndoPacific Expo 2023, photographed by Navalnews.com

Designated by MHI as “FFM-AAW”, to accentuate its anti-aircraft specialization, the new frigate will, in fact, be longer (142 m vs. 133 m), heavier by 1000 tons with a tonnage of 6 tons loaded, and more heavily armed, with 200 vertical launch silos, and not 32 as for the Mogami.


There are 75% of this article left to read, Subscribe to access it!

Metadefense Logo 93x93 2 Surface Fleet | Military Naval Construction | Defense Contracts and Calls for Tenders

The Classic subscriptions provide access to
articles in their full version, and without advertising,
from €1,99. Subscriptions Premium also allow access to archives (articles over two years old)


Advertising

Copyright : Reproduction, even partial, of this article is prohibited, apart from the title and the parts of the article written in italics, except within the framework of copyright protection agreements entrusted to the CFC, and unless expressly agreed by Meta-defense.fr. Meta-defense.fr reserves the right to use all options at its disposal to assert its rights. 

For further

SOCIAL MEDIA

Last articles