Class 125 Frigate — The New Frigate for Stabilization Tasks

Rudolf Braun

B ased on both the approved phase document “Final Functional Requirement/Implementation Au­thorization F125” and the parliamentary approval the Federal Office of Defense Technology and Procurement in Koblenz has ordered on 26 June 2007 the construction, building, and delivery of four frigates of the 125 Class. Contractor is the ARGE F125 consortium consisting of the ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems AG (TKMS Ltd) and the Friedrich Luerssen Werft (FL shipyard). The contractor agreed the participation of the Peene Shipyard in the produc­tion. The delivery of the ships is planned to begin in 2014 in a year-to-year sequence.
The project contributes substantially to maintaining Defence technology capabilities in Germany and secures about 500 shipyard jobs in the immediate production sector and about 300 additional jobs in the field of the supply industry. The share of planned orders to be placed with companies seated in Germany is approximately 87 percent.

F125 — Earmarked for Stabilization Forces

Missions/operations of the Bundeswehr for international conflict prevention and crisis management including the fight against international terrorism were corroborated in the White Paper of the Federal Government of 25 October 2006 as the more likely future tasks of the Bundeswehr. They determine the equipment and structure of the Bundeswehr as an instrument of a comprehensively devised German security policy. A consequence of the reorientation of the Bundeswehr is the differentiation of the armed forces between response forces, stabilization forces, and support forces in accordance with the Concept of the Bundeswehr of 9 August 2004. Whereas response forces are planned for military conflicts of high intensity and for peaceenforcing measures and for creating the preconditions for peace-stabilizing measures, the stabilization forces are intended for multinational joint and combined military operations of low and medium intensity and longer duration in the broad spectrum of peace-stabilizing measures. Stabilization operations will determine the employment reality of the Bundeswehr to a rather considerable extent in future.
Today’s frigates of the Navy were designed and constructed to be employed in combined action with other naval warfare means in conflicts with naval forces and are generally optimized for a subarea of naval warfare. They can basically be also employed for stabilization tasks, but only with a heavy load and stress on the personnel in respect to absence and a heavy strain on the materiel in respect to the service life and endurance in missions.
Under these parametric conditions a ship design was realized in a relatively short — when compared to earlier frigate projects — analysis phase of only three years, a layout which basically takes account of other utilization and crew concepts and which has fully considered in the planning the experiences of the Navy gained in the current mission, e.g. at the Horn of Africa and during the participation in international units. This was only possible by a close, intensive and flexible cooperation between system procurement activity and customer and the involvement of the industry; this collaboration is going to be continued in the introduction phase, which is now about to begin.

Tasks and Capabilities

As part of the stabilization forces the F125 Frigate will perform the following main tasks:

  • Conduct of maritime stabilization operations
  • Tactical fire support from ship to shore
  • Combat against asymmetric threats at sea
  • Establishing a command capability on Com­mander Task Group (CTG) level
  • Support of missions of the Special Forces. In addition, support is rendered for the specialized forces of the Army within the scope of already existing capabilities (secondary task), especially in military rescue and evacuation operations.

For accomplishing these tasks, the F125 Frigate disposes of the following capabilities, which are summarized under the keyword “Intensive Use“:

  • Long lasting time on station of up to two years in the areas of operations without requiring a yard/docking period (including transit to and from the area of operations) as compared to six months in current missions
  • Layout for 5,000 underway steaming hours per year and thus a doubling of the annual availability as compared to the present frigate classes
  • Technical layout of the vessels for the implementation of a Two-Crew concept (TCC) and thus the dissolution of the direct ship/crew linking. The TCC consists of two alternately employable permanent crews of approximately 110 sailors each (50 percent of the regular crew of present frigate classes) with a four-month relief cycle
  • Layout of the Operation Maintenance Cycle Standard (OMCS) of the vessels (intervals for major maintenance) to 68 months without requiring interim maintenance necessary to date
  • Seagoing endurance of at least 21 days (with fuel supply at sea)
  • Service life of 25 years.

All this will reduce the presently usual deployment/repositioning cruises and changes of ships in missions to be conducted as well as the stress load on the personnel employed as regards its strength and absence. The intensive use is particularly achieved by:

  • Consistent orientation of the project towards the service phase/service life
  • Selection of low-maintenance and easy maintenance systems
  • Realization of automated processes and a high degree of automation
  • Implementation of new operation processes and procedures
  • Simple, uncomplicated operating/handling of the weapon system
  • Exploitation of available technologies.

F125 — Design Features

The superior design features are listed below in the tabular summary:

Length (overall): 145.60 m
Width (max.): 18.40 m
Draft: 5.00 m
Number of bunks:190 (permanent crew and embarkation contingents
Cruising speed: 20 knots
Max. Speed: at least 26 knots
Cruising range: 4,000 nm
Seagoing endurance:21 days

In designing and materializing the F125 Frigate special attention was focused on system overlapping concepts from the fulfillment of which results the safe, efficient, and proper task-related operation of the ships.
To be mentioned as an example here is the implementation of a configuration management which is stringently orientated towards the service phase and which ensures that the F125 weapon system with all its components in respect to its functional and physical features is clearly identifiable at any time. This identification serves the systematic pursuance of modifications by simultaneously ensuring of the reproducibility and integrity of the overall system and supports the feasibility of required maintenance, system preventive maintenance and system modification measures.

The Platform System

The silhouette of the overall design is characterized by the application of the dual-island principle with exhaust ducts through the island structures. This principle ensures the required redundancy and degradation capability of mission-essential systems – supply with freshwater, cold water and fuel, generation and distribution of compressed air and energy as well as the array of the sensors and effectors.
Between the island structures there are spaces on the topside deck for two 20-foot containers in which additional equipment is possible to be accommodated. On the main deck, there are boat recesses for the placement of four boats with a maximum length of eleven meters. These boats can alternatively be used as stand­by boats for performing control and surveillance tasks within the scope of maritime interdiction operations (MIO). In addition the can serve as boarding and delivery means for Special Forces when fitted out with modular equipment. The aft section is characterized by the realization of flight operations facilities for parking and operating two shipboard helicopters (SBH) of the MH90 type including the appurtenant material deployment packages (spare part packages, ground checkout equipment and special tools) and the appurtenant flight operations and maintenance personnel. These facilities include an SBH briefing room with workstations for operating a mission support system in connection with the command control information system and the ship’s combat direction center.
The forward section of the ship is characterized by the integration of a 127mm gun by Oto Melara (127mm/L64) which enables the F125 to provide fire support from sea to shore over the required range in a joint mission and which can also be employed for antisurface warfare.
The radar and infrared signatures are optimized for the use of decoy launching systems. Aside from closed warping decks they also include the realization of inward and outward sloped side panels, closed bulwarks as well as curtains in front of the boat recesses to reduce the radar echoing area and also an exhaust cooling for gas turbines and power generation systems.
The F125 will get ship control rooms which – in addition to the own ship’s control – will allow the command and control of maritime units by embarkation of a Commander Task Group (CTG) including staff or the employment of Special Forces with links to the required command control and communication means. Outstanding feature of the crew accommodations is an improvement of the accommodation standard whose core elements consist of a reduction of the occupancy number per cabin and a decentralization of the sick bay/dispensary areas.

Design-determining Concepts of the Platform System

Realized in the platform system were numerous innovative concepts, which have a design­determining character and which support the intensive use of the ship. Most prominent here is the food service concept, which was adjusted to the ship operation system with reduced crew strength. It includes optimized “traffic lanes” using a central lift to deliver the food supplies in grating box palettes directly to the deep freezers. The extent of subsistence articles was possible to be clearly reduced and is largely based on finished goods with a high convenience degree, which meets today’s eating habits.
The design was also determined by the realization of a high protection level of the crew with the aim of decreasing the probability of a hit in threat situations to be expected, reducing its impact and being able to safely conduct necessary evacuations. This overall concept which is geared to the Two-Crew Concept F125 stands out for a high degree of automation and encompasses in addition to the already mentioned signal reduction measures and increase of the combat survivability of the ship the realization of a sufficient NBC protection, protection of mission­essential areas against shells and fragmentation, the shockproof design of mission-essential systems and equipment, and the implementation of a damage control concept tailored to the available personnel which is supported by secure and reliable sensor systems with links to the command and control stations. Due to the reduction in personnel with the F125, additional systems and equipment are planned aside from the usual battle damage control equipment. They include a comprehensive equipping with fire alarm devices, automated fire-extinguishing systems and video cameras in and on the ship as well as the realization of a personnel locating system which shows the location of persons on the decks and in the sections and supports thus a safe and quick evacuation in case of damage.
Another design-determining concept to be mentioned is the propulsion system. Here, an electric CODLAG (Combined Diesel Electric and Gasturbine) propulsion, which guarantees an electrically propelled cruising speed of 20 knots and a continuous maximum speed of more than 26 knots, has been realized for a Ger-man frigate for the first time. The power generation concept combines the electrical energy needed for propulsion and the ship’s power supply in an energy pool. The energy is provided by two redundantly designed electric power sta­tions with two diesel-electric generation aggre­gates each with a power efficiency of 3,000 KWmech each, with the electricity being dis­tributed over a 6.6-kV medium-high-voltage system.

Weapon System

The F125 weapon system is divided into the following components:

  • Combat direction system (CDS) with the elements sensor systems, effectors, Link 11/16/22 and CDS HW/SW including a ship­wide network with defined standard interfaces on the basis of the IP protocol family that is based on sophisticated network technologies
  • Command control and information system with a web-based NATO information portal for non-real time information on the situation
  • Functional information system with the elements: logistics (in future SASPF = Standard Application Software — Product Family) and telemedicine
  • Information transmission system/communication with system components for internal and external communication including SATCOM and BFEM (Battle Force E-mail) — HF-based, military e-mail link) as well as a modern communication management system as a central control instrument
  • Navigation
  • Training/simulation.

The weapon system meets the requirements for a quick and near-real time employment of sensor-effectors chains, a preparation/processing of data for an updated compilation of the situation picture which supports the decision making in a best possible way and for a situation-adapted, efficient employment of effectors.
To be particularly emphasized here is, on the one hand, the sensor equipment of the F125 which allows an acquisition of surface and air­borne targets at minimum ranges near the ship’s side at a coverage of 360° and whose sensors are employable both alternatively and redundantly, and which complement each other with regard to their search and acquisition capacities.
The sensor equipment includes:

  • Non-revolving multifunction radar
  • IFF Mk XII/ Mode 5/S
  • Two electro-optical trackers
  • IR/TV monitoring/surveillance system
  • ESM (Electronic Support Measures) radar
  • ESM communications
  • Mobile diver detection sonar.

In addition, there are effectors available on the F125 for combating diverse threats which complement each other in their engagement range and their target spectrum, which allow the frigate a precise, graduated and selective effect, and which provide the ship’s command and control several robust options for action. This creates the basis for escalation dominance. The following effectors are available:

  • Eight HARPOON antisurface missiles
  • Two naval light guns for close ranges (27mm)
  • Seven heavy machine guns (12.7mm) HMG Oto Melara Model 517
  • Gun weapon system Oto Melara 1 27mm/ L64 VULCANO
  • Two RAM (rolling airframe missile) launch­ers (HAS mode)
  • Four searchlights
  • Four decoy launchers MASS (multi ammunition softkill system).

Design-determinating Concepts in the Weapon System

Asymmetrically operating enemies use environmental conditions to hide their identity and objectives as long as possible. The identification of an asymmetric threat represents therefore a special challenge. The classic sensor systems are not sufficient for that. The F125 has an IR/TV surveillance system for that purpose which allows a continuous 360° surveillance of the immediate environment and whose camera pictures can be permanently transmitted to large-screen displays in the operations center.A key element on the way to a reliable identification is the evaluation and assessment of all available information. This is supported in the F125 CDS for the first time by specific algorithms in the software component ATR (Automatic Target Recognition).
The realization of a reaction concept, which allows a graduated, selective, and precise effect with the three steps — warning/challenge — non-lethal reaction — lethal reaction — is of paramount importance. This is supported by the threat analysis and effectors’ selection in the F125 CDS. The results are displayed on the consoles in the operation center, on the bridge, and in the CTG control room so that the user has a systematic processing and allocation of all achievable data in order to be able to make a final decision on the employment of weapons. The aspects of IT security were taken account of in a project supporting way when working out the concepts for the weapon system. An IT security concept was prepared already before the con­struction in a tool-supported way which defines a regulation-conform and already evaluated solution for a secure red/black transition to separate classified and unclassified information.

A Challenge for all Parties Involved

In its special design and configuration for stabilization operations, the F125 weapon system is a new type ship whose realization represents a challenge for all parties involved, particularly in respect to the long times on station and the reduced crew strength. The innovations of the weapon system are hardly visible from the outside, but they constitute the core element for the implementation of completely novel operation and employment concepts. The F125 is thus a contribution to the transformation of the Bundeswehr and the reorientation of the armed forces, especially by the improvement of the availability of forces on missions and by the joint, interservice approach.

By Rudo lf Braun, Assistant Chief of Section in the F125 Frigate Team of the Project Section in the Federal Office for Defence Technology and Procurement.