The rhk111 Military and Arms Page: Weapons, Decoys and other System Updates for the Jose Rizal class Frigates

The 1st of 2 Pages of the Article "Jose Rizal Class Frigates: What Lies Ahead"

The Philippine Navy (PN) recently uploaded on their official Website the April 2021, Volume 100 of their official Gazette, the “Rough Deck Log”, and one the Articles there is titled “Jose Rizal Class Frigates: What Lies Ahead”.1

The Article provided some details about the current and future plans of the PN for the 2 new Ships in terms of its Weapons, Decoys and other Systems. Below is a summary of those:

* 76 mm caliber Ammunition, 720 Target Practice (TP) rounds and 748 High Explosive rounds have been acquired and were delivered last January 2021.

* 30 mm caliber Ammunition, 4,000 Target Practice Tracer (TPT) rounds and 6,000 High Explosive Incendiary (HEI) rounds were acquired and scheduled for delivery by the 2nd Quarter (or by June) of 2021.

* Surface to Air Missiles (SAM), 17 Units are being acquired and will arrive by the 4th Quarter (or by December) of 2021.

* Surface to Surface Missiles (SSM), 8 Units are being procured and will arrive by the 1st Quarter (or by March) of 2022.

* Torpedoes and the Radio Frequency (RF, also known as Chaff), Infra-Red (IR) and Acoustic Decoys are currently undergoing Bidding.

* Fitted For But Not With (FFBNW) Items like the Vertical Launch Systems (VLS) and Towed Array Sonar Systems (TASS) are targeted to be installed after all of the above Items are completed.

‘76 mm Ammo’

Just some additional details on some of the Items above, starting with the 76 mm caliber Ammo. So right now, the two Frigates have the ammunition for their Oto Melara 76 mm caliber Super Rapid Gun Mounts (SRGM).

The Supplier of the ammo was the Spanish Company Expal Systems SA to whom the Notice To Proceed (NTP) was issued in 2019.

The Contract was worth Php 63 million (Usd 1.2 million assuming the Exchange Rate of Usd 1 = Php 52.5) and the delivery was supposed to have been made by August of last Year (2020) but was delayed, probably due to the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (Covid-19) Pandemic.

The Contract called for 720 TP rounds, 748 High Explosive Point Detonating (HEPD) rounds and 4 Cutaway rounds. That’s 360 TP rounds and 374 HEPD rounds that can be allocated evenly for each of the two Frigates.2

‘30 mm Ammo’

The ammunition for their 30 mm caliber Aselsan SMASH Secondary Guns were supposed to have been delivered by last June 2021, but no official confirmation on that on the News Reports yet.

The Ammo Supplier is the Spanish Branch of the Norwegian company Nammo to which the Notice Of Award (NOA) was issued last November 2019. The Contract was worth Eur 1.9 million (Php 110.8 million at the Exchange Rate of Eur 1 = Php 57.95).

Around 2,000 TPT and 3,000 HEI 30 mm ammo can be allocated evenly for each of the two Vessels.3

‘Missiles’

Based on previous News Reports, the SSM will be the C-Star while the SAM will be the Mistral. The latest versions of these that are likely to be used on the Frigates are the SSM-710K C-Star and the Mistral 3, you can read more about them on my Blog last February 2021.4

The Mistral 3 will be used on the Simbad-RC Launchers of the Ships, and their delivery seems to have been delayed by a couple of Months as the previous schedule mentioned before was by October 2021, but now it is out to by December 2021.

The number of 8 C-Stars and 17 Mistrals are much lower than the 15 C-Star and 40 Mistrals reported earlier this Year (2021) by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) Arms Transfers Database.

This means only up to 4 C-Stars and 8-9 Mistrals can be allocated evenly to each of the Jose Rizal class Frigates.

‘Torpedoes, Decoys and FFBNW ’

Remember that the Article was from 4 Months ago, but I couldn’t find any new updates yet from the News Reports on the status of the Torpedoes and Decoys as of now. Hopefully it will come out soon.

It is good to read the PN mention their planned schedule for the FFBNW Systems, I hope it is done quickly right after the current Projects are completed so the 2 Ships can finally live up to their full potential.