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Project Horizon

Horizon is a joint program between France and Italy. The aim is to develop and build a common new-generation AAW frigate. The Horizon frigate will also have anti-surface and anti-submarine capabilities to conduct an extensive range of missions: air defence as part of an aircraft carrier group, support of lightly armed or unarmed vessels or operations as a single unit.

The Horizon frigate is predominantly an AAW vessel for zone defence and local defence against saturation missile attacks. She is being designed for rapid deployment and extended range and endurance so she can quickly reach distant crisis zones. The stabilization system allows the ship's helicopter to be deployed and her combat system to be operated in rough seas. The Horizon benefits from the La Fayette family's advanced survivability. Her highly automated combat and platform management systems ensure high availability and crew efficiency, plus fast response to all emergencies. The combination of Aster missiles and Sylver vertical launchers ensures high-level protection for both crew and ship. Horizon frigates will also feature a state-of-the-art electronic warfare suite.

The anti-air frigates were designed to control the airspace over the battle zone to support military operations, provide command for air defense, or directly protect special units. Their missions could include anti-air cover for an aero-naval convoy, or for a group of vessels unequipped for attack and defense. They could also be used to intervene in the aero-maritime theater of action, or participate in public service civil operations. Horizon frigates will be equipped with the main PAAMS anti-air missile system, developed by France, Italy and Great Britain.

HORIZON-class frigates are warships specialized in anti-air defense. Their main mission is to escort an aero-naval combat force supporting an aircraft carrier, or a group of lightly armed vessels, like a Projection and Command Ship (BPC/Bâtiment de Projection et de Commandement). These frigates are being built as a cooperative effort between Italy and France to assure the protection of a convoy of vessels against high levels of threat, and massive attacks by anti-naval missiles. They can also fulfill command and control functions of aero-maritime space within a coalition force.

To accomplish their missions, these frigates are equipped with a modern and powerful combat system. The Principal Anti-Air Missile System (PAAMS) based on ASTER missiles is in itself a major breakthrough. This anti-missile protection system, which was the outcome of a cooperative effort between Italy, the UK and France, is equipped with 48 verticallylaunched missiles. This system will allow Horizon frigates to intercept salvos of incoming missiles. For self-protection, the Horizon frigates will also be outfitted with multiple anti-naval and anti-submarine capabilities and a modern electronic warfare system.

The ship has a displacement at full load of 7,050 tonnes, a length of 152.87 m, a maximum beam of 20.3 m, a maximum speed of 29 knots and a crew of only 230, thanks to the high degree of automation of the platform and the combat system. These ships, equipped with PAAMS, Principal Anti Air Missile System, developed by Italy, France and the UK, will be mainly tasked with escorting naval vessels for anti-air purposes, although the ship will also carry out missions of a civilian nature and will ensure air traffic control in critical zones. Vessels in the “Orizzonte” class, thanks to their high technological content and their potential for high profile performance, will guarantee safety and security with an excellent level of operating efficiency.

Tri-National Common New Generation Frigate (CNGF)

The UK withdrew from participation in the tri-national Project Horizon / Common New Generation Frigate (CNGF) program for the UK, France and Italy, and the project was terminated in October 1999. Delays to the Common New Generation Frigate program had increased the costs borne by the UK Ministry of Defense by £537 million There was no slack in the overall development program for the CNGF and the planned in-service date of 2002 was overly optimistic.

The Common New Generation Frigate project comprised two linked collaborative programs to acquire a replacement Class of vessels for the Royal Navy?s existing Type 42 anti-air warfare Destroyers (Project Horizon) and to equip them with a missile system (the Principal Anti-Air Missile System (PAAMS)) capable of protecting the vessels themselves and ships in their company against aircraft and missiles. The Common New Generation Frigate was originally intended to enter service in December 2002 and work alongside the Type 23 Frigates whose primary role is anti-submarine warfare.

As of August 1995 the Ministry of Defence (the Department) seemed to have applied the majority of lessons learnt from past warship procurement programs in their strategy for the acquisition of the Common New Generation Frigate (CNGF), which will follow-on from the Type 23 Frigate as the United Kingdom's next major escort warship procurement. However, there were, in the National Audit Office's view, two areas which give cause for concern: an overly optimistic project timetable and the work-share arrangements on a program where United Kingdom production and development costs were estimated to be between £4.5 and £5 billion.

CNGF was intended to replace the Type 42 Destroyer as the Royal Navy's primary air defence vessel for maritime operations. The ship, and many of its combat equipments, was to be procured through international collaboration with France and Italy and is likely to be one of the most complex warship programs ever undertaken by the UK MOD.

The tri-nationally agreed procurement strategy provided for the establishment of an International Joint Venture Company which will be contracted for the design and build of the ship's platform, and for carrying forward the design and integration of the Combat System and other individual equipments. When operational, the ship should provide a most effective area defence capability.

This was the second time the United Kingdom had been substantially involved in the collaborative procurement of a frigate, the UK having been a member of the NATO Frigate for the 90s project. The project failed in the 1980s, primarily because it proved impracticable to harmonise national requirements and time scales between so many partner nations. Lessons learnt from past United Kingdom warship projects had major implications for the procurement of the CNGF not only for the Department, but also for industry. The National Audit Office's review of the CNGF project to date shows that the Department are acting upon the majority of the lessons that have been highlighted by the Committee of Public Accounts and the Defence Committee in their reports on warship building and other procurements over the last 20 years.

Industry was treated as a full partner in the procurement of the CNGF and was contracted to bear much of the procurement risk. In turn, the Department and their collaborative partners put in place arrangements to monitor, and as far as possible, minimise risk on the overall program. Such arrangements were particularly important, given that the development risk on the CNGF was comparable to, if not greater than, that for the United Kingdom's own Type 23 Frigate Program.

Modern warship production techniques may require elements of the ship design to be frozen much earlier than in the past and modular construction may well require the delivery of equipments for ship fitting at an earlier stage. This, in turn, placed greater emphasis on the requirement for equipments to be fully defined before detailed design of the ship begins.

The CNGF Memorandum of Understanding between the UK and other national partners followed the recommendation of the Committee of Public Accounts that trade-offs between minimising costs and securing an equitable work share should be determined in advance. The agreed principle for CNGF was to be value for money. However, this was subject to an agreement that work share should broadly equate to cost share throughout the program. If not managed carefully, work share considerations could cause significant difficulties, as they have done on another collaborative program, and seriously inhibit the cost effectiveness of the program.

Franco-Italian HORIZON SAS

To carry out this cooperative program, the national organizers of the HORIZON program are based on new Franco-Italian structures within which the DGA and French Navy staff headquarters represent France. A Franco-Italian program office installed at Issy-les-Moulineaux is running the program with the support of the Navies and technical experts from both countries. In October 2000, the DGA granted a contract of 3 billion euros to Horizon SAS to cover the development, production and logistics for four FOC (first of class) frigates for France and Italy.

DGA and NAVARM, the two procurement agencies for the Horizon program, awarded the overall project management for this cooperative program to HORIZON SAS, a joint subsidiary of ARMARIS (a DCN/THALES joint venture) and ORIZZONTE SISTEMI NAVALI (a FINCANTIERI/FINMECCANICA joint venture). HORIZON SAS, the prime contactor for this Franco-Italian program awarded DCN, in France, and FINCANTIERI, in Italy, responsibility for the design and construction of the warships. Prime contracting for the combat system was entrusted to EUROSYSNAV, a joint venture of ARMARIS/FINMECCANICA, which draws its industrial capacities from DCN, FINMECCANICA and THALES.

This is the first time that warships of this level of complexity had been cooperatively built with such a high prevalence of common platforms: thus 90% of the equipment is common to both the French and Italian frigates. Cooperation applies not only to the warships, themselves, but also to most of the integrated systems, for example the PAAMs anti-air system which has brought together France, Italy and the UK; the anti-torpedo system and the MU 90 torpedoes manufactured in cooperation with Italy. There is also the NH90 helicopter that the frigate can carry and deploy, a program that resulted from cooperation between France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Portugal.

Moreover, the Horizon program illustrates the refined prime contracting expertise of DGA. This consist not only in producing materials under the best conditions in terms of costs, timeframes and performance, but also in assuring punctuality when putting them into service and high inter-operability. That is why several activities are undertaken simultaneously: shipbuilding, qualification of its anti-air weapons system, integration and sea trials of its combat system.

In April 1999, the Defense Ministers of the United Kingdom, France and Italy agreed not to proceed with development and production of the Horizon project, and Phase 1 (Project Definition) was subsequently completed at the end of October 1999. The replacement national Type 45 Destroyer project (which will still be equipped with PAAMS) is due to enter service in 2007, the same timescale envisaged for the Common New Generation Frigate Project at the conclusion of Phase 1, but still five years later than the date originally estimated based on military judgement of when the new ships were required.

Horizon Construction Program

The Horizon contract includes the development and construction of four state-of-the-art anti-air frigates, as well as their associated logistics: Two French frigates, Forbin and Chevalier Paul, to replace the Suffren and Duquesne frigates; Two Italian frigates - Andrea Doria and Caio Duilio - to replace the Ardito and Audace frigates. As of 2004 each Navy was to receive one vessel in 2006 and a second in 2009.

The networked sharing of Computer Assistant Designs (CAD) at all levels also made it possible to avoid a lengthy mock-up process and drastically decrease the duplication of anomaly errors during assembly. For example, pipes are pre-bent for easy assembly, and cables are routed using CAD to optimize positioning and determine ideal pre-cut lengths. Plans showing the juxtaposition of all systems allow for uniform interconnectivity. Important investments were also made at the Lorient shipyard to optimize the means for warehousing and production, and to develop a networked means of communication to assure a strong motivation among all installers. Moreover, a new building to house engineering was inaugurated in 2005. A complete overhaul of methodology for preparing and executing the work was undertaken on DCN sites so as to respect the program’s production flowchart. Thus, a special assembly area was created to integrate engineering, industrial processes, and scheduling.

An official ceremony was held 10 March 2005 at the DCN shipyards in Lorient to mark the launching of the first Horizon class French frigate, the Forbin. This industrial operation marks an important milestone for the cooperative Franco-Italian naval program. As for the second frigate, Chevalier Paul: its first plate was cut on 1 December 2003 and delivery was planned for Spring 2008. After the “first cut” ceremony on 8 April 2002 in Lorient, the launching of the Forbin marked a new, important and significant phase. It indicates the end of the installation onboard of the heaviest and most unwieldy materials, especially the main elements for the energy and propulsion system. Moreover, it prefigures the integration of the combat system during the summer of 2005, in preparation for full sea trials.

On 14 October 2005 at Fincantieri’s shipyard at Riva Trigoso (Genoa) there was the ceremony to launch the “Andrea Doria”, the first of two “Orizzonte” class ships ordered by the Italian Navy from Fincantieri under a contract signed in October 2000, within the framework of an agreement between Italy and France to build four vessels, two for each Navy. Acting as godmother to the ship was Dame Gesine Floridi Doria Pamphilj. Steel cutting of the ”Andrea Doria” started at Riva Trigoso in July 2002, and delivery was scheduled within 2007. The sister ship, “Caio Duilio”, on which construction started in September 2003, will be delivered at the beginning of 2009. The two ships are being built at Fincantieri’s Naval Vessel Business Unit shipyards at Riva Trigoso and Muggiano, which are complementary to each other. Fincantieri is also building for the Navy under the Italian-German programme which comprises the completion of two U212A type submarines, the “Todaro” and the “Scire’, as well as the programme for the aircraft carrier, “Cavour”.