On November 7, the lead ship of France's first digital frigate, the Admiral Amiral Ronarc'h (D 660), was launched at the Lorient shipyard; And delivery to the French Navy is scheduled for 2024.
As a multi-purpose medium-sized ship, the full name of this class is "Frégate de défense et d'intervention" (FDI). The ship can act both independently and in formations to perform air defense, anti-ship, anti-submarine and asymmetric operations. The ship has a total length of 122.25 meters, a broadside beam of 17.7 meters, and a standard displacement of 4250 tons. Admiral Ronak is equipped with four MTU 16V 8000 all-diesel engines with 42,900 axle horsepower, a top speed of > 27 knots, and a range of 5,000 nautical miles at 15 knots.
In terms of armament, 1 "Otto" 76mm rapid-fire naval gun was installed on the foredeck; This was followed by two 8-mount "Silva A50" vertical launch systems; Between the chimney and the mainmast are two quadruple Exocet 40MK2 anti-ship missile launchers; Also on the broadside are 1 twin 324 mm MU-90 torpedo launchers; As well as the Aster-15/30 anti-aircraft missile, 2 sets of Nikoster 20mm remote-controlled weapon stations, plus 1 10-ton helicopter, 1 700-kg UAV and 2 assault boats.
As a country that has produced the "Lafitte" class stealth frigate and the world's smallest nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the biggest highlight of the FDI frigate is not that it first adopts a fixed 4-area array digital AESA radar, or the "Seafire" 500 active phased array radar, nor the integrated integrated mast; But in order to improve stealth and sea resistance, the inverted angle axe bow was adopted!
This kind of backward tilt straight through the wave bow, which is similar to the ancient punching angle bow and like an axe, is not a new result of the Chinese people's painstaking research. The American "Zumwalt" class destroyer was the first to adopt such a bow. What the French can do is to carry out an extremely perverted shrinkage design on the basis of the reverse inclination angle, partially downward from the waterline.
Zumwalt-class (above) and Dachen Island (below)
However, from the perspective of the development trend of this bow, it is not limited to the United States and France or warships. For example, in March 2022, the coastal luxury passenger ship "Dachen Island" built by Hunan Xiang Shipbuilding Industry Co., Ltd., which is only 49.97 meters long and 8.4 meters wide at the gunwalex, adopts this weird bow design! As early as around 2019, the unknown Vietnam Damen Songkhla shipyard, the aviation training ship (MV Sycamore) built for the Royal Australian Navy, and the patrol boat built for the Venezuelan Navy, also chose this bow type.
Going back further, the dome armor protective cruiser "Zhiyuan" launched on September 29, 1886, the second ship of the Beiyang Naval Division's "Ding/Town", and even many capital warships of that period, also used this "axe-like bow".
THE "AXE BOW" ON MODERN SHIPS, ALSO KNOWN AS THE "AXE BOW", MAINLY COMES FROM THE DHARMA MEN. DAMEN'S BELIEF THAT THE SLENDER BOW HAS EXTREMELY LOW DRAG, AND ITS SIZE ALSO GUARANTEES OPTIMAL MARITIME MAINTENANCE AT HIGH SPEEDS, AS WELL AS EXCELLENT FUEL EFFICIENCY AT ALL SPEEDS. When France chose the bow style for the FDI frigate, it believed that the "inverted angle axe" could effectively overcome the bow pitch caused by the impact of the waves, making this medium-sized warship capable of meeting the needs of far-sea operations. And with increasing emphasis on stealth performance, the radar reflection cross-sectional area of the "axe bow" is also smaller than that of the traditional bow.
For example, the 15,000-ton Zumwalt class looks like a small fishing boat on a radar screen. The destroyers built by the US Navy under the guidance of the idea of "from sea to land" are characterized by the low resistance, resistance to waves and good stealth effect of the "axe bow". This provides many conveniences for the ship to perform offshore and land support missions around the world, and can also reduce maintenance and use costs to a certain extent.
To sum up, the "axe bow" belongs to a resurgent design, and under the conditions of modern technology, targeted innovation has been carried out. It's like a woman's skirt, which intuitively grows long and short for a while, but rises and falls with popularity and aesthetics. So, does designing a battleship also need to repeatedly hover between popular and classic?
In fact, the core of this problem stems from the consideration of sea supremacy and sea victory in various countries, and the corresponding adjustment of ship design according to technological development and battlefield needs, and then obeys the ultimate performance! Since the first ship of mankind stepped into the ocean, there have been dozens of bows, such as angled bows, hanging bows, spoon bows, flying shear bows, tilting bows, bulbous nose bows, as well as double bows, axe bows, X-BOW bows, etc.
For example, in the era of wooden warships, the attack method of the angle bow was extremely popular because it was much more destructive to the enemy ship than artillery or engagement warfare underwater. After the advent of ironclad warships, ships have since escaped the monsoon, and in World War II and after the war, in order to balance the power system with high speed and high seaworthiness, the lower aspect ratio was exchanged for high speed and beautiful ship shape. For example, the "Hood" of the strength battle is completely projecting lethality with its appearance! As the primary condition for a ship to split waves, the task of the bow is to resolve the resistance and wave splitting of seawater. It is the primary consideration for warships to achieve higher speeds, better seaworthiness, seaworthiness and stability. Therefore, the axe bow, vertical bow, spoon bow were changed to flying shears bow or bulbous bow, and even later straight bow inclined forward.
The design of a new generation of warships since the 21st century not only adheres to the development concept of structural protection, but also does not emphasize high speed. More is to consider how to accommodate a large number of data-based information equipment such as radar, and not to squeeze the space of the weapon system, but also to take care of the crew's work and quality of life. Therefore, FDI-type frigates of more than 4,000 tons are also designed to be short and thick.
In order to obtain better pitch stability, roll stability, high seakeeping and maximum interior space, simple construction and higher stealth performance are also pursued. Countries began to do the opposite, the first of which was to abandon the flying shear bow and replace it with a straight bow that slopes forward, or simply use "axe bows" such as FDI and Zumwalt-class, and adopt merchant shipping standards to build warships, handing over their own protection and combat effectiveness to electronic perception, detection and analysis systems throughout the ship. Gradually change from hard protection and hard killing in the past to soft protection and soft killing...
(References and pictures from online public media, invaded and deleted)