As if answering our plea from last month, one of our three “X” seems to be moving along with the RFI just pushed out for FFG(X).

It is a strange document in that you can almost see the claw marks of advocates of the failed LCS program scratching through the project. I’ll get to that in a bit, but let’s look at some of the highlights.

This is what they are looking for.

…consider existing parent designs for a Small Surface Combatant…

Note that no one is asking for a clean sheet proposal. This is looking for existing designs. That narrows the options, focuses the mind, and is there for a good reason;

Procurement profile to be assumed beginning in FY20 is 1/1/2/2/2/2/2/2/2/2/2.

That is about as “now now now” as one can get.

Before we go further, if this isn’t evidence that the worm has fully turned against the entire LCS/FF program, nothing else will convince you. The requirements below, minus the LCS advocates’ claw marks, outline the turn. We are at least six to ten years late asking for a functioning multi-purpose frigate, but we are at least here now.

What else do we want?

…achieve select sea control objectives and perform maritime security operations … supplementing the fleet’s undersea and surface warfare capabilities, allow for independent operations in a contested environment, … relieve large surface combatants from stressing routine duties during operations other than war. in support of strike group and aggregated fleet operations. … penetrate and dwell in contested environments … will normally aggregate into strike groups and Large Surface Combatant led surface action groups but also possess the ability to robustly defend itself during conduct of independent operations … over-the-horizon anti-ship missiles … Perform anti-submarine warfare (ASW) scout and patrol missions …

That my friends is a solid, multi-purpose frigate along the lines we have been asking for well over a decade and a half. No modules, no exquisite celestial network talk or the other vaporware of the transformationalist era. We have looked around at other navies’ modern, well built, effective, and deadly frigates and realized we have a huge capability gap.

Of course, with such a call and short timelines, many are thinking of license building of foreign designs – we have few domestic options in the wings – but there is enough effective clawing from the LCS crowd that may constitute a poison pill to a foreign design if someone wants it to be.

… the Navy desires to use common Navy systems across the radar, combat system, C4ISR systems, and launcher elements. Hull, Mechanical, and Electrical systems commonality with other US Navy platforms is also encouraged.

Put the smart people on that, but let’s look at the threshold values. I’m going to pick a few of the highest (1) to lowest (3) threshold items (as defined in the RFI, mine would be slightly different) that are of most interest to me, and see where things line up with what is available.

Of note, I’m not including the frigate offering of the national security cutter, the British Type-26, nor the FF versions of the LCS. Reason? They are not displacing water anywhere. With the proposed timelines and the false starts of LCS, there should be little tolerance for program or technology risk.

The smart move it to get what you can see, touch, measure.

Gold star exceeds threshold, green ball meets, orange might be an issue, red arrow a problem.

As it appears that the LCS mafia managed to give their totem a chance, some of the thresholds are just silly for a blue water, multi-purpose frigate. 3,000 nm range? Only a 57mm? No clear ability to have MK-41 VLS? That is politics, and it is part of the game. For at least those few thresholds I pulled out, I’ll mark those low-expectation ones with a (CM) or the LCS claw marks.

What will we wind up with? Hopefully something better than the 2014 FF sham that this is supposed to be making up for. Given what this back-of-the-cocktail-napkin of a blogpost tells me, we should be looking at FREMM – somewhere between the French and the two Italian versions.

If I may be so bold, about a decade ago I proposed we license build a 12-24 ship run of the best EuroFrigate would could until we could give our domestic shipbuilders a chance to get a design of their own as a follow on. This is an opportunity to do this again. No shame in it. Our allies have license built our ships over the years, and at a time we are trying to get them to buy the F-35, showing we can buy their good ideas too would be in everyone’s favor.

Now, we just wait.