Valour Class Frigate - Planned Upgrades

Planned Upgrades

• Autonomous underwater vehicles: AUVs are expected to revolutionise undersea warfare the way UAVs have air warfare. It is anticipated each of the frigates and the multi-purpose hull vessels will carry an AUV for minehunting purposes, obviating the need for specialist vessels.

• Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: The Navy is following the ongoing development of rotor-propelled UAVs and plan to purchase some, to a scale of two per ship, when the technology matures.

• Land Attack Missiles: As of 2008 the class deliberately lacks a land-attack cruise missile capability for political reasons: such weapons are seen by some as “too aggressive” and out of keeping with the Valour-class’s “defensive posture”. However, like its peers the SA Navy recognises the growing importance of fighting in the littoral battlespace and supporting land forces during war and peace operations. As a result, a land attack missile capability is likely to be added as funds become available and sensitivities are assuaged.

• Upgrading the Umkhonto missile: Denel is ready to further develop a version fitted with a radar seeker and an extra solid-fueled booster should a customer desire these upgrades. This would suggest the Umkhonto VLS (vertical launch system) can accommodate missiles capable of medium ranges and area defence (the current Umkhonto-IR is, by contrast, a short-range point-defence system. It is not known if a higher speed version of the missile is to be developed. Tests in 2005 appeared to demonstrate the system's ability to defeat subsonic targets. However, several navies and air forces already have supersonic anti-ship missiles. How Umkhonto will deal with these is not known in the public domain.

• A new main gun: The Otobreda 76 mm (3-inch) caliber naval gun that is fitted to this class is an interim cost-saving measure. Senior naval officials are well aware this naval gun is too small to effectively support forces ashore. In the intermediate term, a navalised version of either the 105 mm Denel G7 gun or the 155 mm Denel G6 gun is considered to be a good choice because of their longer range and the already-existing variety of land-attack munitions for both calibers. The South African Navy was impressed by the testing of a German 155 mm PzH2000 gun turret in December 2002 aboard the German Navy frigate Hamburg, replacing the 76 mm naval gun and a later test aboard the German frigate Hessen. In January 2006, the Jane's International Defence Review reported that the "development" of the MONARC (modular naval artillery concept) naval 155-millimeter gun turret has been expedited following what the contractor Rheinmetall described as the turret's "tentative pre-selection" as part of the armament solution for the German Navy's future F125 class frigate development program.