F-100 Alvaro de Bazan - 1990s Program
The F-100 programs had their origin in the need for the Navy to count on a suitable number of escort ships in the year 2000. To accomplish this, Spain participated, starting in 1983, in the future NFR-90 frigate project, in which eight NATO nations tried to codevelop a common ship. This program was cancelled in 1989, given the disparity of national requirements.
After the 1989 cancellation of the NFR-90 frigate project, the F-100 program was created to take care of the Navy's need for a suitable number of escort ships in the year 2000, taking advantage of the experience accumulated in the NFR-90 project -- in which the Spanish industry had an outstanding paper -- and giving continuity to the advances that had taken place with the development and construction of the second series of frigates FFG (Navarrese and Canary).
The goal was to develop a technologically advanced ship and with a high degree of national input, that assured the Navy a high degree of independence in the definition, control and modification of the weapon system throughout its operational life. The program had, consequently, to contribute to the definitive evolution of the national industrial base, in particular in fields such as naval systems, and thereby increase its international competitiveness. In 1990, the Navy, with the collaboration of the National Company Bazán, initiated the Phase of Prevision and determined the operative requirements which would underline the construction of four frigates of between 3,500 and 4,000 tons, and with eminently antiaircraft characteristics. In 1992, a Viability Study by the companies ISDEFE, Bazán and INISEL.
In this study, three alternatives for the platform were considered, four for the general disposition of the ship, ten for the battle system and twelve for the propulsion. It concluded that it was possible to meet the Navy's requirements with a 4,500 tons ship. This study demonstrated the great interest of the Spanish industry in participating in the program and their ability to reach and confront the issues of defining, designing, developing and constructing the ship's platform. Also stated was its ability to manage and to develop certain areas of the battle system, although as far as some specific aspects were concerned, it would have to be complemented with foreign technology.
To reduce technological risks and costs and to correct deficiencies, the possibility of cooperation with other nations was studied, as much in the battle system as in the acquisition of other equipment. This resulted in talks with the German and Dutch Navies which were working on similar national programs for new frigates (German F-124 and Dutch LCF). The State Secretaries for Defense of the three nations signed an Agreement for the collaboration in the Phase of Definition of the ships at the end of 1993. Previously, in the industrial area, Bazán had reached an agreement with with the shipyards Royal Schelde of Holland and Blohm und Voss of Germany on collaboration in the project and construction of the respective platforms. Indra, on the other hand, reached an agreement with the Dutch Signaal on collaboration for the battle system, based on the APAR radar (Active Phased Array Radar), being developed by Germany, Holland and Canada.
The Phase of Definition, also ordered in November of 1993, was developed between December of that year and July of 1995. The trinational collaboration worked suitably during that same period, as much at the industrial level as at the governmental one.
However, given the eminently anti-aerial character of F-100, during the mentioned Phase, the segment AAW was identified as the most critical of the Program. The Navy considered that the adoption of the APAR, a system still under development, posed a risk in terms of cost and schedule. Equally difficult to accept was the potential risk implied by the modification of the guidance of the SM-2 missiles chosen for the Spanish frigate, to make it compatible with the APAR; this change would demand tests to be carried out to qualify the system and, possibly, the modified missile, resulting in further delay of the Program. Confronted with these risk factors, it was preferred to consider and anti-aircraft system based on the American Aegis, an option already operational and proven in the ships of the U.S. Navy and with a similar cost, in principle, to the considered one for the APAR.
In June of 1995, collaboration with Germany and Holland in that segment was abandoned, though it was continued in the remaining areas of the battle system and the platform. Following this, during the summer of 1996, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed that extended the cooperation between the three European countries to the construction phase of the frigates. The decision to change the concept of the battle system prolonged the Definition of the Program F-100 for a year, with the purpose of adapting it to the Aegis. That Phase of Transition concluded in July 1996.
Between all the programs the Navy emphasized that of the Frigate F-100, has been directed to the construction of four of these units, initially planned to be delivered to the Navy between the years 2002 and 2005. Four units of the F-100 frigate were initially ordered for the Navy for construction. They were to go into service between the years 2002 and 2007, and are based on the Aegis antiaircraft system. These ships will have one of the better equipment/displacement relationships. The new Spanish frigates were named Alvaro of Bazan (F-101), Roger de Lauria (F-102), Blas de Lezo (F-103) and Méndez Núnez (F-104), having put the keel of the first on 14 June 1999.
With the fourth unit the generational replacement completed itself with the retirement of the surviving BALEARIC frigates class and would leave to the Navy in 2010 with a total of 11 main ships of escort (six F-80 modernized and five F-100), although does not discard the possibility of adding in the future one sixth unit of the F-100 class to have itself the necessary bottoms.
A total of six ships were originally planned, including Roger de Lauria (F105) and Juan de Austria (F106). These were cancelled but a fifth ship was later added as the F105 Cristóbal Colón. The rumored continuation of the F-100 program (whose completion was planned for 2006) was confirmed in May 2005 with the order of a new ship of the series without a name assigned. Although details were not publicized, is possible that their keel is put next year with a delivery for 2008 or 2009. Although it was not known if differences with respect to the first series, the impulse that the program had oriented to possible contracts in other countries supposed the inclusion of some different elements, that they could also take advantage of the present experience the user with the ships of the series at the moment in good condition.
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