During the Cold War, the tonnage of the United States and the Soviet Union has been rising, the United States has a 10,000-ton "Ticonderoga"-class cruiser, while the Soviet Union has a Kirov-class cruiser with higher positioning and tonnage. But in today's era, it seems that the 10,000-ton class ** is no longer exclusive to destroyers or cruisers, and the tonnage of many frigates is getting higher and higher, even approaching the displacement of 10,000 tons. Recently, a real 10,000-ton frigate began to be built, and this is the F126 frigate from Germany, a kind of luxury military yacht that looks so strange.
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Let's start with the data. The displacement of the F126 frigate has reached 10,550 tons (11,000 tons), which exceeds all Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, and is only about 1,000 tons different from China's 055-class destroyers. **The dimensions are also very exaggerated, with a length of 166 meters and a width of 217 meters, draft 59 meters, with a total power of 43,000 horsepower, a maximum speed of more than 26 knots, a range of 4,000 nautical miles, and a self-sustaining power of 21 days. It can be said that in addition to tonnage and size, the parameters in other aspects are quite average, and they are not a particularly powerful **.
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As can be seen from the F126 renderings currently circulating on the Internet, it uses a relatively standard stealth design. But in terms of details, it's not so well handled, it's just that it's more sci-fi on the outside, and the actual stealth ability is not as good as the level of 055. China's 055 design is relatively decent, and the stealth design is direct and in place. F126 is different, on the whole, its stealth design is not too problematic, but many details are slightly sloppy, such as a large number of bare **equipment, which seems to show that Germany does have a certain gap with first-tier countries in terms of stealth ** design.
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Despite such a large tonnage, the F126's ** system is very ordinary, with a 127-mm stealth gun installed in the bow, which is decent. The anti-ship missiles are eight Kongsberg's NSM Block 1A missiles, which can also take into account land attacks to a certain extent. The most strange thing is that its air defense ** only has 16 units of MK41 vertical launchers, even in the case of multiple bombs, it can only accommodate 64 ESSM Block 2B medium-range anti-aircraft missiles at most, which means that its air defense capability is only about 1 10 of the 055-class destroyers with a relatively close tonnage. Many friends have said that since the tonnage of the F126 is large enough, it is possible to urgently expand the number of units of the MK41 vertical launcher in wartime. Theoretically, if the design is in place, then there is no problem in expanding the 16-unit MK41 launcher to about 90, after all, this tonnage is larger than Arleigh Burke, but it is not certain whether Germany has affected the layout space of the vertical launcher because of other designs, and it can only be said that there is potential to expand.
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On the auxiliary air defense side, there are two RIM116 Ram close-range interceptor missiles, which are installed above the *** hangar at the bow and tail of the ship, as well as some small-caliber cannons and heavy machine guns to intercept small boats or frogmen and so on. The *** hangar in the tail can accommodate two ***, generally including two NH90 multi-purpose *** and other types of UAVs. There is an X-band active phased array radar from Thales on the mast, and a multi-functional surveillance radar is also installed, although the technical degree is okay, but its overall combat strength is even a certain gap with China's 052C, and it is indeed like expanding a 5,000-ton frigate to 10,000 tons.
As for why, we feel that a lot of **tonnage** in Europe is getting bigger and less because the threat of war in European countries is not great, and for these countries, the construction of a military cruise ship with good seaworthiness and good habitability may be more important than combat effectiveness. The United States is strong but has good relations with Europe, our country is strong but it is difficult to have an actual conflict, not to mention Japan and South Korea, only Russia is a real threat, and Russia's strength is really not enough.
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At present, Germany is basically certain to build four F126 frigates, the remaining two have not yet been confirmed, and the successor F127 frigates are currently wavering. It seems that the development of the ** in the whole of Europe in the direction of luxury yachts is really the general trend, with a displacement of 10,000 tons but a complete lack of combat effectiveness. In stark contrast, in addition to our country and the United States, it is Russia's small tonnage but very powerful firepower.
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