The ''Formidable''-class multi-role stealth frigates are multi-mission derivatives of the

French Navy The French Navy (, , ), informally (, ), is the Navy, maritime arm of the French Armed Forces and one of the four military service branches of History of France, France. It is among the largest and most powerful List of navies, naval forces i ...

's in service with the

Republic of Singapore Navy The Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) is the Naval warfare, maritime Military branch, service branch of the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) responsible for defending the country against any seaborne threats and as a guarantor of its sea lines of ...

. The six ships form the First Flotilla of the Navy.

Planning and acquisition

The search for a replacement for the aging ''Sea Wolf''-class missile gunboats, which entered into service in 1972, started in the mid-1990s. The United States, Sweden and France participated in the bid for the contract. In March 2000, the Singapore

Ministry of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and Mi ...

awarded the contract to DCNS for the design and construction of six frigates. A key feature of the contract was the

technology transfer Technology transfer (TT), also called transfer of technology (TOT), is the process of transferring (disseminating) technology from the person or organization that owns or holds it to another person or organization, in an attempt to transform invent ...

arrangement. Under the arrangement, DCNS was to design and build the first frigate in its

Lorient Lorient (; ) is a town (''Communes of France, commune'') and Port, seaport in the Morbihan Departments of France, department of Brittany (administrative region), Brittany in western France. History Prehistory and classical antiquity Beginn ...

yard in France while the remaining five frigates were to be built locally by Singapore Technologies (ST) Marine at its Benoi yard in Singapore. Subsequent maintenance and mid-life retrofit will be done by ST Marine. Construction of ''Formidable'' began in late 2002, when the keel was laid down in Lorient in November 2002.

Design and construction

Radar cross section Radar cross-section (RCS), denoted σ, also called radar signature, is a measure of how detectable an object is by radar. A larger RCS indicates that an object is more easily detected. An object reflects a limited amount of radar energy b ...

(RCS) reduction features have been incorporated into the ''Formidable'' class design, with inclined hull sides and bulwarks as well as concealment of ship boats and replenishment-at-sea equipment behind low-RCS curtains. The ''Formidable'' class have a significantly reduced profile than the ''La Fayette'' class and its other derivatives, due to the smaller superstructure and the use of enclosed sensor mast technology. The frigate is also constructed entirely of steel, unlike the ''La Fayette'' class which makes extensive use of weight-saving composite structures in its aft superstructure block. The frigates also possess better sea keeping qualities and are able to stay at sea for longer periods of time.

Sensors and systems

The frigates are equipped with the Thales Herakles

passive electronically scanned array A passive electronically scanned array (PESA), also known as passive phased array, is an antenna in which the beam of radio waves can be electronically steered to point in different directions (that is, a phased array antenna), in which all the ...

multi-function radar, which provides three-dimensional surveillance for up to . The radar provides all-round automatic search and tracking of both air and surface targets, and is integrated with the

MBDA Aster The Aster 15 and Aster 30 are a Franco-Italian family of all-weather, Vertical launching system, vertical launch surface-to-air missiles.Sylver vertical launch system (VLS), each frigate is equipped with 32 cells. It is reported that the frigates have a special

surface-to-air missile A surface-to-air missile (SAM), also known as a ground-to-air missile (GTAM) or surface-to-air guided weapon (SAGW), is a missile designed to be launched from the ground or the sea to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of anti-ai ...

configuration, combining the Thales Herakles radar with the Sylver A50 launcher and a mix of Aster 15 and 30 missiles. The ''Formidable''-class frigates are key nodes within the

Singapore Armed Forces The Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) are the military of the Republic of Singapore, responsible for protecting and defending the security interests and the sovereignty of the country. A component of the Ministry of Defence (Singapore), Ministry of D ...

' Integrated Knowledge-based Command and Control network, a concept similar to the United States Department of Defense's

network-centric warfare Network-centric warfare, also called network-centric operations or net-centric warfare, is a military doctrine or theory of war that aims to translate an information advantage, enabled partly by information technology, into a competitive advantag ...

doctrine. The locally developed Combat Management System integrates all the sensors and weapon systems on board, and a dual

Fast Ethernet In computer networking, Fast Ethernet Ethernet physical layer, physical layers carry traffic at the nominal rate of . The Classic Ethernet, prior Ethernet speed was . Of the Fast Ethernet physical layers, 100BASE-TX is by far the most common. ...

data transfer system forms the backbone of this system. Each frigate has a span of influence that stretches up to about , where it acts as the Navy's mobile operations centre out at sea and receives information from sister ships and aerial assets deployed within the range. The Combat Management System will then make sense of the different data, establish an accurate picture of the area of operations, and send the information back to shore and to its army and air force counterparts. This increases

battlespace Battlespace or battle-space is a term used to signify a military strategy which integrates multiple armed forces for the military theater (warfare), theatre of operations, including aerial warfare, air, information warfare, information, ground w ...

awareness and allows little time for the enemy to react due to the short sensor-to-shooter loops.

Armament

The frigates are equipped with

Boeing Harpoon The Harpoon is an all-weather, over-the-horizon, anti-ship missile manufactured by McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing Defense, Space & Security). The AGM-84E Standoff Land Attack Missile (SLAM) and later AGM-84H/K SLAM-ER (Standoff Land Attack M ...

missiles and Oto Melara 76 mm guns for surface defence. The Harpoon missile has a range of and uses active radar guidance. It is armed with a warhead. There is space for as many as 24 Harpoon missiles at the center of ship making it the most well armed ship of its class. The gun fires shells to a maximum range of at a firing rate of up to 120 rounds per minute. The frigates will be equipped with the Blue Spear SSM codeveloped by IAI and

ST Engineering ST Engineering, is a global technology, defence and engineering group with a diverse portfolio of businesses across the aerospace, smart city, defence and public security segments. Headquartered in Singapore, the group reported a revenue of ov ...

as part of the Formidable's ongoing MLU program, replacing the aging Harpoon missiles and giving the Frigates additional beyond-line-of-sight(BLOS) as well as sea and land attack capabilities. The frigates are also equipped with the

EDO Corporation EDO Corporation was an American company which was acquired by ITT Corporation in 2007. EDO designed and manufactured products for defense, intelligence, and commercial markets, and provided related engineering and professional services. It emp ...

active low frequency towed sonar to enable long range submarine detection and classification, as well as EuroTorp A244/S Mod 3 lightweight torpedoes fired from two B515 triple-tube launchers hidden behind the bulwark. The frigates are equipped with

Sikorsky S-70 The Sikorsky S-70 is an American medium transport/utility helicopter family manufactured by Sikorsky Aircraft. It was developed for the United States Army in the 1970s, winning a competition to be designated the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk, UH-60 ...

B naval helicopters, an international derivative of the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

Sikorsky SH-60B Seahawk. The Ministry of Defence signed a contract with

Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation Sikorsky Aircraft is an American aircraft manufacturer based in Stratford, Connecticut. It was established by the Russian-American aviation pioneer Igor Sikorsky in 1923, and was among the first companies to manufacture helicopters for civilian ...

in January 2005 to acquire six of these helicopters, which will be organic to the frigates. Each of these naval helicopters are equipped with
Telephonics
AN/APS-143 ''Ocean Eye''

X-band The X band is the designation for a band of frequency, frequencies in the microwave radio region of the electromagnetic spectrum. In some cases, such as in communication engineering, the frequency range of the X band is set at approximately 7.0� ...

maritime surveillance and tracking radar, a

L-3 Communications L3 Technologies, formerly L-3 Communications Holdings, was an American company that supplied command and control, communications, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance ( C3ISR) systems and products, avionics, ocean products, training ...

Helicopter Long Range Active Sonar ( HELRAS) dipping sonar, EuroTorp A244/S Mod 3 torpedoes and a

Raytheon Raytheon is a business unit of RTX Corporation and is a major U.S. defense contractor and industrial corporation with manufacturing concentrations in weapons and military and commercial electronics. Founded in 1922, it merged in 2020 with Unite ...

AAS-44 electro-optic system to provide infrared detection and tracking. The naval helicopters will be raised as a squadron in the Republic of Singapore Air Force and piloted by air force pilots, but the system operators will be from the Navy.

Mid-life upgrades

On 5 May 2023, the Ministry of Defence of Singapore announced plans to update the capabilities of the Formidable class frigates in order to maintain technological edge. On 14 December 2023, ST Engineering announced a contract was received for the upgrade which it expects to complete by 2028. A related contract was announced by

Naval Group Naval Group is a major French industrial Corporate group, group specializing in navy, naval defense industry, defense design, development and shipbuilding, construction. Its headquarters are located in Paris. Heir to the French naval dockyards ...

on 2 May 2024 to support the upgrade as partners of ST Marine.

Ships in class

Operational history

The six frigates form the 185 Squadron of the RSN. RSS ''Formidable'' participated in Exercise Malabar 07-2 in September 2007, a Theater Security Cooperation engagement involving the navies of the United States, India, Australia, Japan and Singapore. The exercise involved more than 20,000 personnel on 28 ships and 150 aircraft, including the USS ''Kitty Hawk''

Carrier Strike Group A carrier strike group (CSG) is a type of carrier battle group of the United States Navy. It is an operational formation composed of roughly 7,500 personnel, usually an aircraft carrier, at least one cruiser, a destroyer Squadron (naval), squad ...

RSS ''Intrepid'' conducted the navy's inaugural live firing of the French-made Aster 15 surface-to-air missile on 2 April 2008, off the French coast of Toulon. The frigate successfully shot down an aerial drone simulating an enemy target with an Aster missile. It was reported that the frigate sailed halfway round the world to test fire the Aster missiles due to the crowded air and sealanes around Singapore and the lack of an instrumented firing range needed by defence engineers to track and measure the performance of the Aster missile. RSS ''Steadfast'' participated in the world's largest multilateral naval exercise

RIMPAC The Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC) is the world's largest international maritime warfare exercise. RIMPAC is held biennially during June and July of even-numbered years from Honolulu, Hawaii, with the exception of 2020 where it was held ...

for the first time from 27 June to 31 July 2008, which involved 20,000 personnel from 10 countries operating over 35 ships, six submarines and over 150 aircraft. During this exercise, RSS ''Steadfast'' launched a

Harpoon missile The Harpoon is an all-weather, over-the-horizon, anti-ship missile manufactured by McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing Defense, Space & Security). The AGM-84E Standoff Land Attack Missile (SLAM) and later AGM-84H/K SLAM-ER (Standoff Land Attack M ...

on a decommissioned USN warship on 14 July 2008 and also refueled at sea with a contingent of USN vessels. Participation in this exercise also validated the RSN's ability to conduct sustained sea operations. On 16 November 2009, the Republic of Singapore Air Force established its Peace Triton Sikorsky S-70B Seahawk Naval Helicopter detachment at the USN Maritime Strike Weapons School in San Diego, California to undertake qualification and operational training under the umbrella of the USN's SH-60F Aircraft Qualification Course. RSS ''Stalwart'' was deployed to southern California to support ship/air integration activities. On 25 March 2010, the Minister for Defence Teo Chee Hean announced that the Seahawk integration programme had successfully concluded with a "high-tempo, week-long exercise" involving assets from both the RSN and USN, including five surface ships, a submarine, maritime patrol aircraft and F/A-18 Hornet combat jets. In September 2012 the RSN deployed RSS ''Intrepid'' and an S-70B naval helicopter in support of

Combined Task Force 151 Combined Task Force 151 (CTF-151) is a multinational naval task force, set up in 2009 as a response to piracy attacks in the Gulf of Aden and off the eastern coast of Somalia. Its mission is to disrupt piracy and armed robbery at sea and to engag ...

(CTF 151), a multinational effort to fight piracy in the shipping lanes off Somalia. This was the first operational deployment of a Formidable-class frigate and naval helicopter for counter-piracy operations in the

Gulf of Aden The Gulf of Aden (; ) is a deepwater gulf of the Indian Ocean between Yemen to the north, the Arabian Sea to the east, Djibouti to the west, and the Guardafui Channel, the Socotra Archipelago, Puntland in Somalia and Somaliland to the south. ...

. This was followed by a second deployment in March 2014 of a task group comprising RSS ''Tenacious'' and another S-70B, the fifth such mission undertaken by the SAF. On 9 March 2014, RSS ''Steadfast'' was deployed along with other air and sea assets to assist with the search and rescue operations of

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (MH370/MAS370) was an international passenger flight operated by Malaysia Airlines that disappeared from radar on 8 March 2014, while flying from Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia to its planned de ...

. In December 2014, RSS ''Supreme'' was deployed in the search for Airasia Flight QZ8501 after it crashed into the Java Sea on 28 December 2014; along with RSS ''Valour'', RSS ''Persistence'', RSS ''Kallang'', MV ''Swift Rescue'', and two Lockheed C-130H Hercules. On 26 July 2021, RSS ''Intrepid'' conducted a passage exercise with HMS ''Queen Elizabeth'', the flagship of United Kingdom Carrier Strike Group 21 and her escort ships, together with RSS ''Unity'' and RSS ''Resolution'', marking the first time the RSN has conducted an exercise with a UK Carrier Strike Group. On 2 March 2022, MINDEF announced plans to upgrade the Formidable class frigate as part of its plans for a modernized, next generation SAF 2040. This entails comprehensive upgrades to all of its subsystems, including armament, combat systems and communications equipment. From 1 to 7 November 2022, RSS Formidable participated in the Japanese Maritime Self Defence Force's 70th anniversary International Fleet Review in Yokosuka, Japan alongside 38 other ships from 13 countries. During the visit, the crew participated in a city parade marching alongside other navies as well as participating in the review sail-past by Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio. RSS Formidable was also included in a multilateral search and rescue exercise conducted by the JMSDF.

References

External links

Official frigate website, MINDEFFormidable Class frigate - Republic of Singapore Navy on navyrecognition.com
;Video links * {{La Fayette class frigate Frigate classes Stealth ships Frigates of the Republic of Singapore Navy