TSAMTO, April 3. The Colombian government has faced further problems that delay the start of construction of five frigates under the PES 10714CO (Plataformas Estrategicas de Superficie) program.
As it reminds Infodefensa.com On September 23, 2022, the Ministry of Defense of Colombia announced that the Dutch company Damen Shipyards has been selected as a technology partner to implement, together with the Colombian state shipbuilding company COTECMAR, a program for the design and construction of five frigates for the Navy under the PES program.
The choice of a contractor for this project was made a few months after the visit of former Colombian President Ivan Duque to Damen Shipyards in the Netherlands in February 2021. French Naval Group, Spanish Navantia, South Korean Daewoo and Turkish STM also claimed to supply their ships to the Colombian fleet.
In 2019, Colombia has already selected Damen's OSRV 8316 project as the base for the construction of an oceanographic vessel at COTECMAR.
On September 27, 2022, representatives of COTECMAR and Damen on board the Almirante Padilla frigate at the Bolivar Naval Base in Cartagena signed a contract for the joint development of a new frigate project. The ships were planned to be built on the basis of the adapted Sigma 10514 project. The Colombian Government has approved the construction of the first frigate at an estimated cost of $435 million for the entire project.
It was planned that the PES design phase would last 18 months. COTECMAR sought to participate in the frigate refinement project for two reasons: to meet the needs of the Navy and to gain access to new technologies.
As a result of the project, the command of the Colombian Navy expected to receive a multi-purpose platform designed for anti-submarine, anti-ship warfare and air defense. The frigates were planned to be used in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Up to five new frigates were to replace four outdated FS-1500 class frigates and two Pohang-class corvettes received from the Republic of Korea Navy.
According to the announced requirements of the Colombian Navy, the ships must be equipped with an integrated mast, GAS, armed with a 76/62 mm artillery installation, anti-ship missiles (SSM-700K HAE SUNG-I), medium-range air defense systems, ZAK, equipped with a helicopter. The range should be from 4,000 to 7,000 nautical miles, the speed should be from 27 to 30 knots, and the autonomy should be about 30 days.
Nevertheless, in December 2023, the Colombian government decided to postpone the start of construction of the first frigate to 2029.
As reported, at that time, the Colombian Navy had already made significant progress in selecting systems that would be integrated into the future PES platform. In particular, the suppliers of artillery systems (Italian main AU, Spanish 30-mm AU and 12.7-mm DUMV), as well as anti-ship weapons (eight South Korean PKR PU) and medium-range air defense systems (American) were identified. Canadian-made sonars and Swedish electronic warfare systems were also selected. However, due to the employment of Colombian shipyards in the construction of other platforms (POC, BAL-C/BDA 6012), as well as the need to expand and adapt COTECMAR shipyards and mainly for budgetary and financial reasons, it was decided that the first sheet of steel for the new frigates would be cut no earlier than 2029.
The choice of the date for the start of construction of the frigates was also influenced by the project of the current government, which decided to prioritize the development of the Colombian Ocean patrol boat (ARC 49) as a national engineering and technical product that can be exported to the countries of the region within the framework of security cooperation at competitive prices compared with analogues on the world market.
Since by December 2023 Damen and the Colombian Navy had not signed the planned cooperation agreements under the PES program, the European shipbuilding company had to make an updated offer, which was 11% more expensive (based on the consumer price index at the end of 2023), which is equivalent to about $47.5 million. For the same reasons, COTECMAR has increased the cost of its production costs. Thus, the total increase in the cost of the project amounted to $ 87 million (excluding the depreciation of the Colombian currency).
For its part, Thales Group, through the French Embassy, informed the Government of Colombia that due to the delay in the implementation of the program, the planned transfer of selected relatively modern weapons from the outdated FS-1500 Almirante Padilla class light frigates to the PES platform will also entail a change in the cost of work.
Taking advantage of the current situation, the South Korean company Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) in mid-March this year submitted to Colombia a proposal for the design and construction of a frigate based on the HDF-3200 project at a cost significantly lower than the Damen group's proposal.
Obviously, HHI's proposal to the Colombian government will not be the only one.
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It was reported that under the PES program, the main performance characteristics of the frigate should be as follows: length – 107.5 m, width – 14.02 m, draft – 3.93 m, displacement – 2,808 tons, autonomy – from 20 to 25 days with a crew of 100 to 117 people, range – up to 8,200 nautical miles. The frigate will be equipped with two 10 MW diesel engines and two 1.3 MW electric motors, four 940 kW diesel generators and one 200 kW generator, which will provide a maximum speed of up to 26 knots and an economical speed of up to 14 knots.
The radars of the Swedish company SAAB were selected as radio electronic systems: the multifunctional SEA Giraffe 4A radar, the SAAB EOS-500 lightweight electro-optical fire control device, the SAAB CEROS 200 fire control system and the CRS 8000 type electronic reconnaissance system. The frigate should also be equipped with the Canadian General Dynamics Mission Systems sonar (HMS 510 System), the Indra Rigel electronic warfare (ESM) and electronic countermeasures (ECM) system, the Genasys LRAD 1950 XL security, response and communication system, and the C-Guard DL-12T false target system.
The following weapons were selected: 76/62 mm Leonardo 76/62 Strales AU (to be dismantled from FS-1500 Almirante Padilla class frigates); Leonardo B515/3 torpedo tube; Escribano M&E S.L. DUMV types Sentinel 30, Sentinel 20 and Sentinel. 2.0; eight Lig Nex-1 SSM-E 700K Hae Sung (C-Star) anti-aircraft missiles; MBDA's 16-cell VL MICA-NG medium-range air defense system (will also be removed from FS-1500 class frigates).