August 31, 2022 at the American shipbuilding company Fincantieri Marinette Marine Shipyard (as part of the Marinette Marine Corporation, owned by the Italian shipbuilding association Fincantieri) in Marinetta (Wisconsin) The ceremony of the first steel cutting took place, marking the official start of construction for the US Navy of the lead frigate of the new type FFG 62 Constellation. Image of the lead frigate of the new type FFG 62 Constellation for the US Navy (c) Fincantieri
The transfer of the FFG 62 Constellation frigate to the US Navy is scheduled for July 2026.
The lead ship is expected to reach the Initial Operational Readiness (IOC) stage in 2030.
Recall that the program for the construction of a new generation of FFG(X) frigates was launched by the US Navy in 2017 and is designed to replace the construction program of the conceptually not too successful "littoral combat" ships LCS. Currently, the US Navy is planning to build 20 new FFG(X) frigates. In April 2020, the US Navy selected the American shipbuilding company Marinette Marine Corporation (MMC) owned by Fincantieri in Marinetta as a designer and builder of promising frigates for the American fleet under the FFG(X) program based on the frigate project presented by the MMC (Fincantieri) based on the Franco-Italian project (Italian version) of FREMM frigates.
At the same time, the MMC received a contract worth $ 795.116 million (against the budget of fiscal year 2020) for the technical design and construction of the lead frigate for the US Navy under the FFG(X) program, then called FFG 62 Constellation, with an option for the construction of nine more frigates. With the implementation of the option, the contract value will reach $ 5.5761 billion. The implementation of the entire contract with the construction of all 10 frigates, taking into account the options, should be completed by May 2035.
The cost of the contract included only the cost of design and construction work of the shipyard itself, excluding weapons and equipment purchased separately by the US government. The design bureau of the US Navy and Gibbs & Cox company also participated in the development of the technical design of the ship. The total cost for the US Navy of the lead frigate should be $ 1.2812 billion, the cost of the second ship - $ 1.05 billion, and the cost of the third frigate should already be $ 900 million. In general, the total cost of the program for the design and construction of 20 frigates for the US Navy should be $ 19.81 billion.
To date, the MMC has also received contracts for the second and third ships of the Constellation type - FFG 63 Congress and FFG 64 Chesapeake, and retains the option for the next seven ships. The first frigates of the new type were named after the first six large sailing frigates of the American Navy, ordered in 1794. From 2023 to 2030, it was planned to order two serial frigates of the Constellation type per year. However, the actual pace of construction of the series will depend on the timing of the connection of the second shipyard to it. Currently, the shipbuilding companies Ingalls Shipbuilding (HII Corporation) and Austal USA are being considered for participation in the planned tender for the second participant in the construction of frigates.
Constellation-type frigates as a whole have gone quite far from the appearance of their original prototype in the form of the Italian version of FREMM. The American frigate has a full design displacement of 7,300 tons, the maximum length is 151.18 m and the width is 19.81 m. For the first time in the practice of the US Navy, the ship will be equipped with a combined diesel-electric-gas turbine (CODLAG) main power plant. Frigates should be equipped with a new derivation of the AEGIS integrated multifunctional weapon system of the Baseline Ten (BL10) variant with a new multifunctional Raytheon AN/SPY-6(V)3 Enterprise Air Surveillance Radar (EASR) with three fixed antennas with AFAR, COMBATSS-21 ASBU and AN/SQQ-89(V) anti-submarine ASBU16. The electronic armament should also include AN AN/SPS-73(V)18 Next Generation Surface Search Radar, towed GAS AN/SLQ-61 and CAPTAS-4, SLQ-32(V)6 SEWIP Block 2 electronic warfare system.
The armament will consist of a 32-charging Mk 41 universal vertical launcher (with Standard SM-2 Block IIIC, Standard SM-6 ERAM and ESSM Block 2 types of missiles), 16 NSM anti-ship missile launchers, one 21-charging Mk 49 RAM Block 2 self-defense missile launcher, a 57-mm universal artillery installation Mk 110, 324 mm torpedo tubes. A Sikorsky MH-60R Seahawk anti-submarine helicopter and one or two Northrop Grumman MQ-8C Firescout unmanned helicopters should be permanently based in the hangar.
