Odysseus1980
I really should change my personal text
- Joined
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This is probably the "High Performance Multi-Purpose Light Frigate" which Schelde offered in 1993 for the UAE's 2,500 tonne light frigate program. Looks very similar to the Saudi F2000S Al Madinah class built by French DCN in the 1980s, which probably served as inspiration for the UAE's requirements.Does anyone know when this corvette was offered for export; Seems very similar with the M-class.
United Arab Emirates
Proposals for up to eight 2,500-ton frigates, due at the end of August 1993, were delayed until November. This large potential program prompted most of the world’s frigate builders (including the Chinese and the Russians) to display designs at the 1993 Abu Dhabi defense show. An order is expected in 1995 for delivery in 1998-2000.
The initial request demands area and point defense missiles, a close-in weapon, antiship missiles, ASW torpedoes (with a hull sonar and/or a towed device), and a hangar and pad for a Lynx-sized helicopter. It seems likely that the requirement for area air defense will soon be abandoned and the projected integrated ECM suite simplified. As of mid-1993, it seemed likely that the final bidders would be Blohm + Voss (MEKO), Royal Schelde (the High Performance Multi-Purpose Light Frigate based on the Dutch M-class), and Vosper Thornycroft.
Biding is complicated by a demand for 60% offsets, based on the profit generated by investments. Clearly the UAE lacks sufficient industry to accommodate such offsets; the figures probably apply to UAE investments abroad.
United Arab Emirates
A revised request for proposals (RFP) was issued for the light frigate project late last year. The new RFP reflects the belated realization on the part of the UAE authorities that their original requirements were very ambitious. Luxury items such as Vertical Launch ASROC and a point-defense missile system have been dropped, but even without them the RFP calls for a formidable warship.
Not much. The five downselected bidders for the UAE light frigate were:Any further information, please;
UAE Naval programmes--getting closer?
Naval Forces Volume 18, Issue 1 (1997)
Over the past few years, the UAE Navy (actually, Abu Dhabi) has been pushing forward a programme for a class of up to six multi-purpose frigates, expected to cost a total of some $2 billion. The key operational rationale for this programme is the perceived need to counter the Kilo class submarines in Iranian service, but there also are other considerations; in particular, the relative ease with which Coalition missile-armed helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft dispensed with Iraqi surface naval assets (including modem and well-equipped ex-Kuwaiti vessels) during the Gulf War did not go unnoticed, and stresses a requirement for robust air defence capabilities.
Accordingly, although the new frigates were originally visualised in the region of a 2,500t design (which, incidentally, would have already implied quite a significant quantum jump for the UAE's fleet), the Emirates' demand for a very capable combat system, including most notably a medium-range surface-to-air missile system for area air defence as well as two ASW helicopters with their relevant hangars, quickly pushed dimensions to 125m and well over the 3,000t mark.