There has been a good deal of discussion in the naval
observer camp lately about some form of supplemental weapons vessel; an arsenal ship/barge, as it was called in
earlier times. The vessel, by whatever
name, would act as a supplemental magazine for manned ships thereby allowing …
well … I’m not really sure what it allows.
Let’s take a look at the latest country to latch onto the fad and see
what’s good about their design and concept and what isn’t.
The Royal Netherlands Navy is going to acquire two-low
manned surface vessels which are euphemistically and optimistically referred to
as ‘The Rapidly Increased Firepower Capability’ (TRIFIC, ‘terrific’? one
assumes they’ll be called in a tortured acronym that some staffer probably
received a promotion for coming up with) and, in some articles, Modular
Integrated Capability for ACDF and North Sea (MICAN) and Multifunctional
Support Ship (pick a name and stick with it!).
The vessel is 170-200 ft long and is based on a commercial
offshore supply vessel. It will carry up
to 4 containers on the aft deck.
TRIFIC Low-manned Surface Vessel |
- increase front-line firepower
- support surveillance efforts
- containerized weapon packages
- electronic warfare (EW) packages combining both intercept and jamming functionality
- operate as an ‘offboard’ magazine for RNLN air defence and command frigates (ADCFs)
- fire support/precision strike for the Royal Netherlands Marine Corps
- provide additional long-range surface-to-air missile capacity for the four De Zeven Provinciën-class ADCFs
- employ long-range precision-guided munitions against coastal targets in support of amphibious operations
- provide protection for infrastructure in the North Sea
- deploy the Harop long-range loitering munition
- precision strike capability against critical targets such as headquarters, artillery or rocket installations, and supply areas
- EW suite to collect information on radar emitters, jam threat radars, and disrupt control links associated with hostile drones
- deploy underwater vehicles/sensors to support surveillance and protection of North Sea infrastructures
- deploy above-water sensors to record the activities of suspicious ships for evidence
The requirement for additional long-range anti-air missiles has been shaped by operational analysis which has determined that a massive and simultaneous attack with anti-ship missiles or swarming drones could rapidly exhaust existing ACDF [air defence and command frigates] magazine capacity. According to Tuinman [Dutch state secretary for defense Gijs Tuinman], the concept of ‘distributed operations’ developed by the RNLN will see a De Zeven Provinciën-class frigate operating in close company with a multifunction support vessel with additional missiles housed in containers on the aft deck.[1]Will a couple of containers of missiles (2? maybe 4 missiles per container?) make the difference to a frigate facing “a massive and simultaneous attack with anti-ship missiles or swarming drones”? Of course not! A massive and simultaneous attack with anti-ship missiles or swarming drones is not a winnable scenario for a single frigate … not even close. To believe that a few extra missile containers will enable a frigate to defeat “a massive and simultaneous attack with anti-ship missiles or swarming drones” is pure fantasy.
https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2024/09/netherlands-firms-up-plans-for-multifunction-support-vessels/
There's speculation that this is really a rush job to increase magazine depth because the Dutch Navy's ships are real short on missile cells, and because of certain choices they made with their radara and combat software, can't use SM-2ER or ESSM. But they can work with the Israeli Barak missiles.
ReplyDeleteSo rather than a refit to replace the radars on a bunch of ships that are already midway in their service lives, they buy these ships to mount Barak ER.
32 additional defensive missiles isn't much, but it's better than what they alrrady have.