Saudi Arabia joins the Aegis family

[Scorpion]

On the sidelines of Euronaval 2018, which was held in the French capital Paris a few months ago, Lockheed Martin offered a family of Aegis ships that show that a new member joined the family, Saudi Arabia, with its multi-mission surface combatants.

Lockheed Martin has developed a version of the Aegis system to work on ships that have less displacement than destroyers such as coastal combat vessels and future frigates of the US Navy.

The MMSC frigates previously contracted by Saudi Arabia will also be equipped with this system.

Again, IMDEX Asia 2019, which will begin tomorrow from May 14 to 16 in Singapore shows Canada has recently joined the family and will operate the Aegis system on its future Type 26 frigate.

 

[Lieutenant]

Lockheed Martin has developed a version of the Aegis system to work on ships that have less displacement than destroyers such as coastal combat vessels and future frigates of the US Navy.

How will they be able to accommodate the system?

@Eagle1

 

[Khafee]

How will they be able to accommodate the system?

View attachment 9344

@Eagle1

In it's current configuration, it is not possible. The Saudi version will be a larger ship - 4,000+ tons, enabling it to be fitted with a closed mast on top of the superstructure, housing the antennas for the SPY-1, as in the pic below:

The Royal Saudi Navy Freedom class, will mount an 8-cell Mk 41 vertical launch system for Evolved Sea Sparrow surface-to-air missiles for shooting down incoming missiles and enemy aircraft. ESSMs can be "quad-packed" with four missiles to a VLS cell, allowing the RSN Freedom class to carry 32 of them, for air defense. It will also carry two port-and-starboard Close In Weapons System 20mm rotary cannons for point-defense.

The ships will be armed with the Bofors 57mm cannon used on the LCS for anti-surface and anti-aircraft engagements and is planned to mount the Naval Strike Missile, the proposed replacement of the aging Harpoon anti-ship missile.

For anti-submarine work it can carry a MH-60R Seahawk type helicopter, and deploy hull-mounted, towed-array and dipping sonars for detecting and tracking enemy undersea targets. It will also have an AN/SLQ-25 torpedo decoy system.

 

[Lieutenant]

So it's actually the combat system.

Four (4) MMSC ships (a derivative of the Freedom Variant of the U.S. Navy Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) Class) that incorporate five (5) COMBATSS-21 Combat Management Systems (four (4) installed, one (1) spare) with five (5) TRS-4D Radars (four (4) installed, one (1) spare)

Five (5) Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) (Mode 4- and Mode 5-capable) UPX-29 (four (4) installed, one (1) spare)

Five (5) Compact Low Frequency Active Passive Variable Depth Sonar (four (4) installed, one (1) spare)

Eight (8) MK-41 Vertical Launch Systems (VLS) (two (2) eight-cell assemblies per ship for 16 cells per hull)

Five-hundred thirty-two (532) tactical RIM-162 Evolved Sea Sparrow Missiles (ESSM) (one hundred twenty-eight (128) installed, twenty (20) test and training rounds, three hundred eighty-four (384) spares)

Five (5) AN/SWG-l (V) Harpoon Ship Command Launch Control Systems (four (4) installed (one (1) per ship), one (1) spare)

Eight (8) Harpoon Shipboard Launchers (two (2) installed four-tube assemblies per ship)

Forty-eight (48) RGM-84 Harpoon Block II Missiles (thirty-two (32) installed, sixteen (16) test and training rounds)

Five (5) MK-15 Mod 31 SeaRAM Close-In Weapon System (CIWS) (four (4) installed, one (1) spare)

One-hundred eighty-eight (188) RIM 116C Block II Rolling Airframe Missiles (RAM) (forty-four (44) installed, twelve (12) test and training rounds, one hundred thirty-two (132) spares)

Five (5) MK-75 76mm OTO Melara Gun Systems (four (4) installed, one (1) spare)

Forty-eight (48) 50-caliber machine guns (forty (40) installed (ten (10) per ship), eight (8) spares); ordnance; and Selective Availability Anti-Spoofing Module (SAASM) Global Positioning System/Precise Positioning Service (GPS/PPS) navigation equipment

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia - Multi-Mission Surface Combatant (MMSC) Ships | The Official Home of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency

dsca.mil

 

[Khafee]

Three variants of the Freedom Class.
The one on top is the version for RSN
The one in the middle is in service with USN
The one at the bottom is just an option

Possibilities for upgraded Freedom class:

Current users of the Aegis combat system:

 

[Khafee]

So it's actually the combat system.

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia - Multi-Mission Surface Combatant (MMSC) Ships | The Official Home of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency

dsca.mil

This DSCA notification is from 2015.

Although nothing has been officially announced, it is highly unlikely that the ships will get TRS-4D Radars.

Most probably the SPY-1F radar (range +/- 180km) , or worst case SPY-1K, either way, it will be a SPY-1.

Limited only by the space available for the SPY-1 radar antennas, it will still have limited capabilities of the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defence System. In future, this handicap might be addressed by software updates.

A good example of this is, how the APG-80, after a software upgrade, is now on par with APG-83.