The rhk111 Military and Arms Page: Jose Rizal class Frigate Drawing comparisons with SEA Frigates

This is the second blog I have comparing the Shipbucket drawing of the Jose Rizal class Frigates of the Philippine Navy (PN). In the first one I compared the Jose Rizal ships to other ships of the PN, but in this one I will be comparing it to some of the most modern Frigates of our South East Asian (SEA) neighbors.

Shipbucket¹ of course is a website that archives ship and aircraft drawings in a uniform scale and style. They allow anybody to contribute drawings as long as they register on the website and submit drawings that comply to the standards they set.

’Shipbucket Crediting Rules’
Here are some explanations and references to conform to the Shipbucket website’s crediting rules.² Except for the Nareusan class Frigate drawing, all the other drawings I used below were originally archived on Shipbucket, and among the changes I made to the original drawings are:
- Moved texts closer to the ship drawings;
- Combined together drawings;
- Enlarged and cropped the resulting drawings;
- Removed the Mk 15 Phalanx Close In Weapons System (CIWS) and RIM-162 Evolved Seas Sparrow Missile (ESSM) from the BRP Jose Rizal drawings;

The Nareusan drawing I retrieved from the artist's Photobucket page, his name can be found on the image. As can be seen, his Nareusan drawing is compliant to the Shipbucket website's standards.

In cases where only a waterline drawing is available of the ship I am comparing with, I removed the underwater hull on the Jose Rizal ships for a fairer comparison.

You can access the original drawings here:
* Jose Rizal class Frigate
* Formidable class Frigate
* Hoang class Frigate
* Leiku class Frigate
* Naresuan class Frigate
* Kyan Sittha class Frigate

’Jose Rizal Frigate’³
Just sharing some information first about the Jose Rizal ships to establish the baseline since it will be what I am comparing the other ships with.

The two Jose Rizal class ships are based on the HDF-2600 design and are made by the South Korean company Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI). They are 107.5 m long and both are scheduled for delivery in 2020.⁴

The ships are armed with one 76 mm Super Rapid (SR) main gun, one SMASH 30 mm secondary gun, four SSM-700K C-Star Anti-Ship Missiles (AShM) and four Mistral short ranged Surface to Air Missiles (SAM). Fitted For But Not With (FFBNW) or for possible future installation are a CIWS and an 8-cell Vertical Launch System (VLS).

’Formidable vs. Jose Rizal’
The images below shows the comparison in size between the Formidable class Frigates⁵ of the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) and the Jose Rizal class Frigates. The Formidable class ships are longer than the Jose Rizal class at 114.8 m in length.

First commissioned into service in 2004, the six Formidable class are based on the La Fayette class ships of the French Navy and are made by the French company Naval Group.

They are the most powerful ships in the entire South East Asia (SEA) right now, able to carry up to 24 RGM-84 Harpoon AShMs (six times that of the Jose Rizal Frigates) and has a 32-cell VLS for Aster 15 and Aster 30 SAMs. The smaller Aster 15 missile has a maximum range of 30 km while the larger Aster 30 has a maximum range of 100 km.⁶

The Formidable class are also the only ships in SEA right now that can probably roughly match up one on one on paper with China’s Type 054A Jiangkai II Frigates which has a 32-cell VLS able to carry HHQ-16 SAMs, each with range of around 74 km.⁷

The RSN has opted not to use any CIWS on the Formidable class ships though, relying mainly on the Aster missiles, Electronic Counter Measures (ECM), Decoys and Main Gun for anti-missile defense. The Formidable ships are also armed with one 76 mm SR main gun and two Mk 38 25 mm caliber secondary guns.

’Hoang vs. Jose Rizal’
The images below shows the comparison in size between the Hoang class Frigates⁸ of the Vietnam People’s Navy (VPN) and the Jose Rizal class Frigates.

First commissioned into service in 2010, the Hoang class Frigates are based on the Gepard 3.9 design by the Russian company JSC Zelenodolsk Shipyard, and they are shorter than our ships at 102.2 m in length.

The Hoang ships are armed with one AK-176 76 mm Main Gun and eight SS-N-25 Switchblade AShMs, twice that of the Jose Rizal class ships. The Hoang Frigates also have three CIWS consisting of two AK-630M guns at the rear of the ship and a Palash (Gsh-6-30KD gun and 9M337 Sosna-RA missile combination) CIWS at the front.

The first two ships of the Hoang vessels don’t have Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) capability, though, but the next four ones have. The Hoang’s use of three CIWS gives the ship good anti-air protection, although only at close range.

’Lekiu vs. Jose Rizal’
The waterline images below shows the comparison in size between the Lekiu class Frigates⁹ of the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) and Jose Rizal class Frigates of the PN. As we can see the Lekiu ships are just a little shorter than our Jose Rizal ships at 106 m.

The two Lekiu ships first entered service in 1999 and were made by the United Kingdom (UK) shipbuilder BAE Systems based on their F2000 design. They are armed with a Bofors 57 Mk 3 57 mm caliber main gun, eight Exocet MM40 AShMs and 16 Sea Wolf SAMs.

Like the Formidable class ships of the RSN, the Lekius don’t have a dedicated CIWS. Its Sea Wolf missiles do act as CIWS since they have a range of only around 6 km, the same range as the Mistral SAMs of the Jose Rizal class ships.

The 57 mm caliber guns on the Leikus are the smallest caliber main guns among the Frigates in SEA, with most countries opting for the bigger caliber 76 mm for their main guns. Thailand even uses the even bigger 127 mm caliber guns on their Frigates, although it has a much lower rate of fire than the 76 or 57 mm caliber guns.

’Naresuan vs. Jose Rizal’
The waterline images below shows the comparison in size between the Naresuan class Frigates¹⁰ of the Royal Thai Navy (RTN) and Jose Rizal class Frigates of the PN.

As we can see the Nareusan ships are much longer than our Jose Rizal ships, in fact at 120 m long the Naresuans are the longest Frigates in SEA, even longer than the 114.8 m long Formidable class ships of the RSN.

Despite its size though, it only has an eight-cell VLS, much less than the 32-cell VLS on the Formidable ships. However, it uses the RIM-16 Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile (ESSM) allowing it to carry 32 of them since each of those missiles can be “Quad Packed” or packed four into a single VLS cell.

The ESSM also has a respectable range of 50 km. Because of this, the Naresuans arguably are the second most heavily armed ships in SEA next to the Formidable ships. The Naresuan ships are also armed with a Mk 45 Mod 2 127 mm caliber main gun, eight RGM-84 Harpoon AShMs and two DS30MR 30 mm caliber secondary guns.

They first entered service in 1994 and only two were built by the Chinese company China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC). It’s a bit ironic though that the American made ESSM is being used on a Chinese made Frigate.

The 127 mm caliber guns on the Naresuans are the biggest caliber main guns among the Frigates in SEA, with most countries opting for the smaller 76 mm caliber for their main guns. Malaysia even uses the smaller caliber 57 mm guns for their Frigates, although it has a much higher rate of fire than the 76 or 127 mm caliber guns.

’Kyan Sittha vs. Jose Rizal’
The image below shows the comparison in size between the Kyan Sittha class Frigates¹¹ of the Myanmar Navy (MN) and Jose Rizal class Frigates of the PN. The Kyan Sittha ships are only very slightly longer than the Jose Rizals ships at 108 m in length.

The two Kyan Sittha ships first entered service with the MN is 2014 and are made locally by the Myanmar Naval Dockyard. They are armed with a 76 mm SR main gun, eight C-802 AShMs, Igla short ranged SAMs on a six round launcher and three NG-18 CIWS. The NG-18 are Chinese copies of the Russian AK630M CIWS.

The Kyan Sittha’s CIWS configuration is very similar to the setup of the Hoang class Frigates of the VPN, with two gun-based CIWS at the stern and a gun /missile CIWS combination at the bow. This gives the ship good protection all around, although at close range only.

'Parting Shot'
The comparisons above are by no means complete, unfortunately there are no decent Shipbucket drawings of the Martadinata class Frigates of the Indonesian Navy (IN) as of now hence I was not able to included it in the lineup above.

Compared to the other ships, our Jose Rizal class Frigates are a bit lacking in terms of the number of AShMs, CIWS and SAMs. But AShMs can always be added later once funds for it are made available, the same with the CIWS and VLS.

In fact, if we are able to get missiles like the ESSM mentioned above that can be quad packed into each of the eight-cell VLS allocated for the Jose Rizal vessels, then it will be better armed than most of the other Frigates in SEA.

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