- Hyundai Heavy Industries has revealed further details of the two frigates that it will build for the Philippine Navy
- The platform is slightly smaller than anticipated, but said to inherit main design features of South Korea's Incheon class
South Korean shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) has given further details of the two frigates that it will be constructing for the Philippine Navy (PN).
The details were given in a media release on 24 October announcing that the contract to build the ships has been formally signed with Philippine defence secretary Delfin Lorenzana. HHI received a notice of the PHP15,744,571,584 (USD311 million) award earlier in 2016.
The company was previously reported to have won the contract with a design based on the company's HDF-3000 multipurpose frigate design, which features an overall length of 114.3 m, and has been used as the basis for the Republic of Korea Navy's (RoKN's) Incheon (FFX-I)-class guided-missile frigates.
HHI has since disclosed in its media release that the platform will instead feature overall length of 107 m, a standard displacement of about 2,600 tonnes, and an operational survivability up to Sea State 5. The frigate has however been described by HHI as one that inherits main design features of the Incheon class, albeit with a lighter displacement.
The ship will feature a combined diesel and diesel (CODAD) propulsion system, and feature a maximum speed of 25 kt, with a standard range of 4,500 n miles at 15 kt.
HHI did not disclose in writing specific details of the platform's weapon systems, saying only that the frigates will be "heavily armed with missiles, torpedo, guns and sensors", and that they will be capable of anti-air, anti-surface, anti-submarine and electronic warfare.
However a computer generated image of the platform accompanying the media release shows an eight-cell vertical launching system (VLS) installed at the forward section, just behind the platform's primary weapon that will most likely be a 76 mm naval gun.
