WASHINGTON: A report recently published by the Congressional Research Service provides the clearest outline yet about the differences between the Navy’s Constellation-class frigate and its Italian parent design, and reveals that design changes were proposed by Fincantieri Marinette Marine in the company’s initial proposal.
“The Navy states that the design differences were proposed by [the shipbuilding firm] Fincantieri and incorporated [into Fincantieri’s proposed design for the FFG-62] prior to [the Navy’s] contract award [for the FFG-62 program to Fincantieri],” according to a Sept. 15 CRS report about the Constellation-class frigate.
The CRS report is based on “Navy information papers” provided to the researchers. Those internal white papers are not traditionally published by the service but are given to official entities such as CRS and the Congressional Budget Office upon request.
Capt. Kevin Smith, program manager for Constellation class, discussed those changes during the Sea Air Space exposition in August in response to a question from Breaking Defense.
“The Italians did a very good job in the design of the internal spaces, and the flow of a lot of those spaces,” Smith said. “You could say we bought a bigger house, [but] from a modeling and simulation perspective, it’s exactly the same.”
It was not clear at the time from Smith’s remarks whether the changes were made before or after the Navy awarded the contract to Fincantieri, a detail now illuminated by CRS.
An informational slide in the report provides several specific changes that FMM made to the parent design as part of their Constellation-class proposal. Those changes include the bow design being modified to remove the sonar dome and enclosure deck for stability, the ship’s displacement being increased by about 500 tons, topside modifications to allow for Navy weapons and the hull length was increased by “23.6 feet to accommodate larger generators and future growth.”
The fact the changes were proposed by Fincantieri prior to the contract award is significant because it means the costs laid out in the contract are congruent with those changes and the shipbuilder is prepared to make them. Changes to a ship design made after the initial award can be much more costly and trigger delays as industry scrambles to adjust.
Still though, the service pitched lawmakers the new frigate program on the basis of a stable parent design and any changes made to that design have the potential to create problems in the future. As of now, the first frigate is scheduled to join the fleet around 2026 or 2027. Whether that happens remains to be seen.
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