Page 37: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (October 15, 1983)

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Maritime Reporter Magazine, page 36, Oct 15, 1983

Maritime Reporter Magazine, page 37, Oct 15, 1983

Maritime Reporter Magazine, page 38, Oct 15, 1983

of the NATO Project Group, Neth- erlands found that its require ments were very similar to those of the German Navy. Thus in June 1973 a Netherlands/German Group was established, and a year later defined their main weapons con- figuration, which in essence is identical to the NATO frigate con- cepts. This binational design pro- vided great advantages through standardization of various ship systems and also allowed training and maintenance to be standard- ized, with resultant cost savings.

The German version has several differences but the cooperative ef- fort produced a joint procurement program leading to further cost savings.

The Netherlands Kortenaer

Class includes 10 standard units, now all in service, and two anti- aircraft frigates now under con- struction at RSV shipyard. With full-load displacement of 3,700 tons, these ships have good characteris- tics of sea-keeping and endurance, and are designed to provide com- plete defense against air, surface and undersea threats.

Armament of the standard frig- ates includes eight Harpoon sur- face-to-surface missile launchers, an 8-cell Sea Sparrow surface-to- air missile launcher, a 76-mm OTO

Melara gun, a 40-mm Bofors gun, and two twin antisubmarine tor- pedo tubes. The 40-mm gun will be replaced with a HSA Goal- keeper 30-mm 4-barrel anti-mis- sile system. For antisubmarine op- erations, the Kortenaer ships are provided with two Lynx helicopters.

The two antiaircraft frigates have a different armament config- uration, without the 76-mm gun and the helicopter pad and hangar but with a Standard MR A/A long- range missile launcher. These ships are also provided with command and control facilities for a task group commander and his staff.

Sensors and other electronic equipment are from HSA, includ- ing a SEWACO III Command, con- trol and information system, and a

RAMSES ECM system. Propulsion plant is a COGOG configuration with two Rolls Royce Olympus 50,000 total bhp gas turbines and two Rolls Royce Tyne 8,000 total bhp gas turbines.

Maximum speed of the Korten- aer frigates is 30 knots and the range is 4,700 miles cruising at 16 knots. Two ships of this class were bought by the Greek Navy in 1980. Portugal also selected this type, one to be delivered by the

RSV yard and the other two to be built under licence but economic conditions have stopped this program.

Turkey, after a long evaluation and selection, recently signed a contract with the German yard

Blohm + Voss for four frigates of the MEKO 200 type; two will be built in the Federal Republic and the other two under licence in

Turkey, probably at Goluck Navy

Yard. This is a completely new de- sign based on the "containeriza- tion" system MEKO for rapid in- terchangeability of weapons or electronics systems without exten- sive conversion work.

Technical details are not yet available, but the MEKO frigates will displace 2,400 tons at full load and will have a multi-purpose weapons system with eight Har- poon surface-to-surface missile launchers, an 8-cell Aspide sur- face-to-air missile launcher, a 127- mm FMC Mk 45 gun, two or three

Contraves Seaguard anti-missile systems, and two triple torpedo tubes. A fixed hangar will accom- modate an Agusta Bell 212 anti- submarine helicopter.

Propulsion of the MEKO will be all-diesel, with four MTU engines totaling 26,000 bhp on two shafts; maximum speed is 27 knots.

The only NATO naval force without latest generation frigates is the Royal Norwegian Navy, which operates five Oslo Class ships built in the mid-60s at the

Naval Dockyard in Horton, and later refitted with Penguin sur- face-to-surface missile launchers (continued on page 36)

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