Canadian Surface Combatant RFQ

[Navy_Pete]

Former NET(A) here - the SONAR dome exists as a protective fairing for the HMS Transducer - which can be raised and lowered so that it's protected by the keel when in dangerous/shallow waters.

The current SQS-510 uses the old SQS-505 Transducer set, which is based directly off the 502 as was installed on the Steamers. 360 individual Transducers built into 36 staves of 10 providing a beamforming network for both transmission and reception.

The upgraded SONAR suite that's being fitted to the fleet makes things even more capable than the 510 - I cannot speak to Caps/Lims in open source, but having seen the 505 and 510, I'm excited for the sailors of today and what the new suite brings for them.

Something I'll observe is that when ships made transits up the St Lawrence, they had to remove the SONAR Dome and put a 'travel plate' over the opening due to some of the shallow waters encountered. With the advent of the bulbous bow, I am suspicious that we will never have any CSC's visit Toronto or the Great Lakes ever again.

Fitting those sonar domes after a DWP costs an absolute fortune to get the required tolerances on flatness, and usually there is trial and error with different domes anyway.

On the ATH's last leg, the direction before that final DWP (in Port Weller) was that the HMS wasn't going to be supported anymore. Took a bit of engineering, but we ended up basically creating some structure on the travel plate to create an actual permanent seal and welded it all up in place, so the HMS became a small confined space. It was about $150k cheaper than getting the sonar dome fitted after DWP, and then there were no worries about the temporary traveler plate falling off in service during the expected full op cycle.

It was an interesting bit of on site engineering to be involved with, especially with how thick some of that structure was..

 

[Colin Parkinson]

When there is a real crisis with CFP's not sailing and only 1-2 CSC in the water, this French design will likley be in full swing production, with capabilities somewhat similar to the CFP.

 

[Oldgateboatdriver]

Weaponry is close but they are nowhere near the same class as the HALs. These are low end ex-colonies patrol type vessels, not NATO front line frigates.

 

[GR66]

The Dutch are going with a version of an "arsenal" ship to provide missile depth to their air defence frigates:

Dutch Navy to buy armed sidekick ships for its air-defense frigates

Dutch shipyard Damen will build the vessels, with Israel Aerospace Industries supplying interceptors, drones and electronic-warfare equipment.

www.defensenews.com

The Netherlands plans to buy two support vessels that will act as sidekicks to its air-defense frigates, packing additional missiles to defeat swarms of anti-ship missiles and drones, for an investment in the range of €250 million to €1 billion (US$279 million to $1.1 billion).

The support vessels will also be able to provide fire support for amphibious operations using long-range loitering munitions, as well as equip underwater drones to track and identify suspicious activity in the North Sea, Dutch State Secretary for Defence Gijs Tuinman said in a letter to parliament on Tuesday.

Dutch shipyard Damen will build the vessels, with Israel Aerospace Industries supplying its Barak ER surface-to-air interceptor, Harop long-range loitering munition as well as electronic-warfare equipment. Buying the missiles, long-range munitions and EW equipment from a single supplier will simplify integration work, the defense ministry said.

The service’s air-defense frigates will continue to be equipped with RTX’s SM-2 surface-to-air missile, and the frigate’s radar and fire-control systems will handle launch and targeting for the missiles on the support vessels.

The Barak ER air-defense missile that will equip the support ships has a range of up to 150 kilometers and can target anything from fighters to tactical ballistic missiles and glide bombs, with eight missiles packed in a vertical launcher, according to the company’s spec sheet.

Small vessels with a small crew. Something suitable for the Reserves?

The vessels will have a length of about 53 meters and a beam of 9.8 meters, for a displacement of 550 tons, a MoD spokesman told Defense News.

The support ships will each have a crew of at least eight sailors. While current technology isn’t sufficiently mature for fully autonomous vessels, the new ships will provide the Navy with experience in operating with small crews, as a first step toward unmanned vessels, Tuinman said.

And the timeline is for making these ships operational is impressive...if only Canada had the same sense of urgency.

The first iteration will be available for the North Sea in 2026, and both vessels will be fully operational in 2027. Equipment on the support vessels will be packed in containers, meaning air-defense kit can be swapped out for long-range munitions based on the specific needs of the mission, according to the letter.