Given the need to renew a significant portion of the surface fleet of the Taiwanese Navy and facing a potential regional conflict with China, Taipei is reportedly looking to reactivate its plan to construct next-generation missile frigates. Behind the idea of reviving the project, there is consideration of transitioning from a vessel originally planned to have a displacement of 4,500 tons to one of 6,000 tons, along with the installation of vertical missile launch systems and higher-performance AESA radars.
In this regard, it has been reported that a delegation from the Taiwanese Navy was recently sent to the United States to visit Lockheed Martin facilities and assess the purchase of the AN/SPY-7 radar system. Information released so far by local media explains that technology transfer for the production and maintenance of such systems in Taiwan is being discussed.
The next-generation frigates are part of a project unveiled in 2016 by the Taiwanese Navy, with the intention of building 12 units. It was also mentioned that these would have a design inspired by destroyers equipped with the AEGIS combat management system. The original goal was to develop a vessel with a displacement of 4,500 tons equipped with AESA radar systems, but after encountering several obstacles, NCSIST could not locally develop a version compact enough to fit aboard the 4,500-ton vessel, leading to the suspension of the project.
In this effort to revive the project, the AN/SPY-7 AESA radar system from Lockheed Martin has been evaluated, based on the Raytheon AN/SPY-6(V) active phased array radar system used in the upgrade of U.S. Navy Arleigh Burke destroyers. Currently, the AN/SPY-7 is exclusively used for export and has been adopted on AEGIS ships by Japan, South Korea, Spain, Canada, and Australia. Additionally, consideration is being given to whether the future frigates could also be equipped and integrated with the “Huayang” vertical launch system developed by the Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST).
*Photographs and images used for illustrative purposes.
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