Myth dispersal, which is a combination of different frigates, corvettes and rocket boats

In Poland, discussions about the needs and future of the Polish Navy have been going on for a very long time (unfortunately, there are few of them, because there are still few key decisions in this area) which are part of the thread about the appropriate sizes planned for the acquisition of submarines.

A lot of attention is given to length and buoyancy, the capacity of shipyards to build individual classes (see myths of length limits that can be built in PGZ War Shipyard, the former Naval Shipyard), and other important elements of such comparisons are often forgotten. Therefore, the Shipyard Portal decided to prepare a graphics combining the most important parameters and characteristics of the three basic classes considered in Poland.

The parameters were designed to be based on average or typical parameters characteristic of a given class of ships: frigate, corvet, and rocket cutters. Therefore, the following were compared: tasks that can be performed, buoyancy, length, autonomy, marine courage, weapons systems with their range of fire and ammunition, the range of basic sensors and the price (platforms and the whole ship with combat systems).

Of course, it should be borne in mind that the lists of this type must, to some extent, constitute generalisation and that the boundary between these classes is very fluid and often depends on national circumstances, as the best example is the programme for acquiring new corvettes of the type Pohjanmaa.

Looking at the above graphics, you can see three fundamental differences, which significantly affect the functionality of different classes of battleships. This is, first of all, due to the large part of the size of the ship, the ability to carry out long-term activities on the offshore basins, independent of the prevailing weather conditions – it grows in a leap with the increase in ship size and practically only frigates (and not the larger classes of submarines described here) are capable of carrying out such activities.

The second major difference is the extent to which the means of identifying the air situation and directing fire against air targets are carried – here the difference is largely due to the characteristics of the stability of ships, because one solution in this case is the installation of heavy radio-location stations on a high mast, which is possible only for large vessels. In the case of other areas of diagnosis, the size of the ship is not significantly affected by the ranges and is mainly due to the parameters of the sensors used.

Finally, the third big difference is the size of the transferred fire unit – even if all three classes of ships are able to carry most of the available marine weapons systems on the market, there are, however, huge differences in the quantities of ammunition, rockets and torpedoes carried for reasons of ship size.

The differences mentioned above related to the large spread of the size of the various classes of ships discussed here are in practice unsurpassable, but some conclusions can be drawn from this in relation to the Polish discussions on the future of the Polish Navy (provided, of course, that the decision-makers finally decide to make a decision in this regard, which seems to be a real pressing need today).

It is no longer a mystery that the price of modern battleships is largely determined by a set of selected combat systems, not by the cost of the platform. Consequently, the price of ships themselves is rising disproportionately slowly relative to the size of the units – with the exception of the most sophisticated platforms designed, e.g. with the establishment of an extremely low field of radar reflection or with unconventional design solutions.

This shows that it is economically viable to invest in larger platforms with a spare space to facilitate the installation of combat systems (from time to time) according to the concept fit for not with. After this comparison you can see that the most universal and cost-effective solution is a frigate class ship.

Written by Mariusz Dasiewicz