The French Navy FS Forbin (foreground) is one of four Horizon-class frigates set to receive a Mid-Life Upgrade as part of a $1.6 billion package. (Marine Nationale on Twitter)
BELFAST — The French-Italian shipbuilding joint venture Naviris and naval air defense missile manufacturer Eurosam have been awarded a €1.5 billion ($1.6 billion) contract to upgrade four Horizon-class anti-air frigates.
The contract, from Europe’s Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation (OCCAR), said the Mid-Life Upgrade (MLU) work is to run from 2026 to 2030.
Naviris, a partnership between Fincantieri and Naval Group, said in a July 31 company statement that the upgrade will see the frigates “receive a state-of-the-art modernization… and the enhancement of their anti-warfare [anti-air] capabilities,” which will include integration of the next generation Eurosam Principal Anti-Air Missile System (PAAMS) and Long-Range Radar (LRR).
The MLU will also involve new weapon systems, Command and Control (C2) and Electronic Warfare (EW) suites.
Specifically, the new PAAMS and LRR upgrade will cover integration of the MBDA ASTER Block 1 NT, an upgraded launcher, two new Leonardo Kronos Grand Naval Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radars and SMART-L MM/N from Thales, in addition to a new open architecture C2 system,” according to Naviris.
“The [Horizon-class] ships as they are right now, do not have an anti-ballistic missile defense capability, so that is the main improvement,” Enrico Gottardo, Bids Director at Naviris, told Breaking Defense today. “The complete renewal of the PAAMS, Long-Range Radar and the CMS (Combat Management System) is going to provide the ship with a whole range of capabilities. I’m not at liberty to discuss the requirements and the performance of these capabilities, but we can say that they are significant.”
Though the French and Italian navies will also use a common EW suite, they have not agreed on a common CMS, deciding instead to go for separate options after a prior Horizon-class feasibility study, according to Gottardo.
Work on Italian frigates will be completed at Fincantieri’s Muggiano shipyard, near Genoa, starting in 2026, with Naval Group to take care of French frigates at the French Navy’s Toulon naval base. Upgrades to the final ship of the four, a French vessel, will be completed in 2030, according to Gottardo.
The Horizon frigates were originally built between 2000 to 2010, based on a joint program between Fincantieri and Naval Group, in order for the French and Italian navies to strengthen their respective anti-air capabilities.
Fincantieri describes the frigates “chief capabilities” as airspace control of areas of operation, air defense C2 and anti-air cover for carrier groups and convoys.
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