Tag Archives: SIGMA 10514

RIMPAC on Parade

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You gotta love RIMPAC just for the sheer quantity of exotic vessels on display. This year’s exercise draws from 26 nations contributing 38 ships, four submarines, more than 170 aircraft, and 25,000 personnel from June 29 to Aug 4 in and around the Hawaiian Islands and Southern California.

How about this shot of a Zumwalt with two Canadian Halifax-class ASW frigates and an old British Type 23, now in Chilean service.

U.S. Navy Zumwalt-class destroyer USS Michael Monsoor (DDG 1001), Armada de Chile frigate Almirante Lynch (FF 07)– ex-HMS Grafton (F80)– along with the Royal Canadian Navy frigates HMCS Winnipeg (FFH 338) and HMCS Vancouver (FFH 331), transits the Pacific Ocean to attend RIMPAC 2022. MC3 Megan Alexander

One of the neater aspects is the fact that four different USV platforms will be at work for this RIMPAC, highlighted in this image of three of them traveling in formation:

USV Nomad, Sea Hunter, and Ranger in formation RIMPAC 2022

USV Nomad

USV Sea Hunter

USV Ranger

Let’s look at some of the other interesting units showing up at Pearl this week.

HMAS Warramunga (FFH 152) of Australia. A German MEKO 200 design built in the late 1990s and much-modified with an Anti-Ship Missile Defence (ASMD) upgrade in 2014, as noted by her CEAFAR active electronically scanned array radars fitted.

French Floréal-class surveillance frigate, FS Prairial (F731).

JS Izumo (DDH-183) Japan’s new F-35 carrier

Martadinata-class frigate KRI I Gusti Ngurah Rai (332) of Indonesia, built to a Dutch design.

Patrulla Oceánica de Largo Alcance ARM Benito Juárez (F101) of Mexico. Built by ASTIMAR to a SIGMA 10514 design by Damen– much like the Indonesian frigate above– she is the first of the Reformador-class and carries U.S.-supplied weapons including Harpoons, an eight-cell MK56 VLS launcher for ESSMs, MK 54 Mod 0 lightweight torpedoes with two MK 32 SVTT triple tube launchers, a Block II RAM, and a 57mm Bofors Mk 110. Keep in mind this is a 350-foot, 2,500-ton vessel. Why can’t the U.S. Navy have 30 of these instead of the LCS classes (and the Coast Guard use the same design for its 25 new Offhore Patrol Cutters?) What could have been, right?

ARM Usumacinta (A-412), of the Armada de México. If the LST looks familiar, she is the former American Newport-class tank landing ship USS Frederick (LST-1184), transferred in 2002. Looking pretty clean for a 54-year-old ‘phib.

ROKN Marado (LPH-6112) RIMPAC 2022

ROK South Korean submarine Sohn Won-yil, ROKS Shin Dol-seok (SS-082), complete with welcome lae

Mexico may be getting some decent surface asset firepower

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The Armada of the Mexican Republic awhile back contracted with the Dutch (Damen) to build a series of four Sigma 10514 POLA (Patrullera Oceánica de Largo Alcance, eng=Oceanic Long Range Patrol) ships to replace the elderly 1960s steam FFs bought from the U.S. and augment their locally-produced light (read= lightly armed yacht) OPVs.

The 344-foot, 2,000-ton frigates are pretty nice and are really comparable to the German MEKO 200s (and frankly better than the LCS). While Indonesia is getting some that are pretty tricked out, the Mexican Navy has opted for a Bofors 57mm, 25mm secondaries (Mk38s), RAM, Harpoon, and Mk. 32 ASW tubes. Check out the below to get a fix on them and how the work will be split into modules between Holland and Mexico.

DSCA approved the following sale earlier this month to help give these ships a little bite. Though the quantities suggest that the outlay is for the first ship only:

The Government of Mexico has requested to buy six (6) RGM-84L Harpoon Block II surface launched missiles, twenty-three (23) Block II Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) tactical missiles and six (6) MK 54 Mod 0 lightweight torpedoes. Also included are eight (8) MK 825 Mod 0 RAM Guided Missile Round Packs (GMRP) tri-pack shipping and storage containers; RAM Block 2 MK 44 Mod 4 Guided Missile Round Pack (GMRP); two (2) MK 32 Surface Vessel Torpedo Tubes (SVTT) triple tube launchers; two hundred and fifty (250) rounds of AA98 25 mm high explosive and semi-armor piercing ammunition; seven hundred and fifty (750) rounds A976 25mm target practice and tracer ammunition; four hundred and eighty (480) rounds of BA22 57mm high explosive programmable fuze ammunition; nine hundred and sixty (960) rounds of BA23 57mm practice ammunition; containers; spare and repair parts; support and test equipment; publications and technical documentation; personnel training and training equipment; U.S. Government and contractor representatives’ technical assistance; engineering and logistics support services; installation services; associated electronics and hardware to control the launch of torpedoes; and other related elements of logistics and program support. The estimated cost is $98.4 million