"There is not enough tonnage for all weapons": Taiwan restarts the frigate construction program

Image source: topwar.ru

Illustrative image

The Taiwanese Navy intends to restart the "New Generation Frigate" program, designed to provide the fleet with new multifunctional ships.

As noted in the local edition of UP MEDIA, the previous project turned out to be an inadequate solution:

Due to the lack of tonnage in the revised program, the displacement of the frigate should already be 6,000 tons: the example of other countries shows that this size makes it possible to make the ship multifunctional. It is planned to equip it with an American radar with AN AN/SPY-7 AFAR [this radar is the "heart" of the American Aegis combat system].

Image source: topwar.ru

The project of a new generation frigate as of 2017

Plans to build a new generation of frigates were announced back in 2016. In 2017, a model of a ship capable of "containing intense attacks" was presented. The Aegis A system was supposed to be responsible for scanning threats (which required US permission to sell).

At the same time, the local Zhongshan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST) was developing its own radar, eventually creating a radar with passive headlights (in ground and ship versions). However, the navy changed its request, requesting the creation of an AFAR radar, which also had to be compact enough to fit on board a 4,500-ton ship. The developers were unable to solve this problem.