Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Only proven ship designs will be evaluated in P18-B frigate project

From the Philippine News Agency (Jan 22): Only proven ship designs will be evaluated in P18-B frigate project

Only proven ship designs and specifications will be evaluated once the Philippine Navy (PN) technical working group and its private consultants starts looking into the plans submitted by the proponents for the Department of National Defense (DND)'s P18-billion frigate project.

"Only proven (frigate) designs will be evaluated," PN technical working group head Commodore Roland Mercado said.

This will ensure that only the best and affordable ships will be acquired by the Navy.

Evaluation will start by February. Each proponent is given one week each to present and explain their designs to the PN group.

Inspection of the designs and technical specifications will be done in Sangley Point Naval Station in Cavite.

During this period, the hull, powerplant, communications, and weapon systems designs will be closely looked into by the PN technical working group and its private consultants.

As of this posting, only four shipbuilders have successfully passed the first stage of the bidding for the P18-billion frigate project. This involves the inspection of company eligibility documents.

These four shipbuilders are Navantia Sepi (RTR Ventures) of Spain and the South Korean firms of STX Offshore & Shipbuilding, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. Ltd. and Hyundai Heavy Industries, Inc.

Three other shipbuilding firms joined the bidding but the DND declared their documents to be deficient.

These companies, identified as Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Ltd. of India, STX France SA and Thyssenkrupp Marine System, have filed a motion for reconsideration at the DND.

Some technical specifications of the DND's P18-billion frigate program have been revealed by MaxDefense: Philippines, a blogsite for Philippine defense related matters.

This includes a capability to conduct air-to-air warfare (AAW),anti-surface warfare (ASuW), anti-submarine warfare (ASW), and electronic warfare (EW).

Aside from this, these naval vessels should be able to do extended maritime patrol with an embarked helicopter and operating up to Sea State 6.

It must also have a range of 4,500 nautical miles at 15 knots, endurance of 30 days in tropical condition, and capable of running up to 25 knots of continuous speed.

Navigation equipment of the two ships, at a minimum, must consist of two navigation radars; GPS; depth sounding set; and vessel tracking system compatible to PN's existing system.

The frigates' weapon system, at a minimum, should consist of a 76-mm gun; stabilized secondary gun; four .50-caliber machine guns; surface-to-surface missile launchers; surface-to-air missile launching system; and anti-submarine torpedoes.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=607909

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