Before criticizing UK shipbuilders you need to see what is and is not included in Korean warship contracts.NickC wrote:November Daewoo Shipbuilding and Engineering awarded a $558M/~£440M contract to build the fifth and sixth FFX-II Daegu class frigates for South Korea’s navy, December Hyundai Heavy Industries contracted to build the last two of the eight Daegu class frigates for $563M/~£440 million order. Total programme budget reported to cost $2.7B/~£1.6B, ~£200M per frigate. The first of class launched by DSME June 2016 and delivered Feb. 2018, last to be delivered 2023, eight ships to be delivered in six years.
Daegu frigates 122m LOA, 14m beam, depth moulded of 7.4m, draught 4.15m. The standard and full-load displacements are 2,800t and 3,600t respectively. Ships will be CODLOG hybrid-electric drive for quietness, same propulsion system as T26, powered by a single RR MT30 36-40MW and two shaft mounted 1.7 MW DRS Permanent Magnetic Motors powered by 4 x MTU 12V 4000 M53B 1,650 kW gensets (as in T23 update), cruise 17/18 knots; max 30 knots; range: 4,500 nm; complement: 120.
Armament: 1 × 5 inch Mk-45 Mod 4 L62 ; 1 × 20 mm Phalanx CIWS; 2 × 3 K745 Blue Shark LWT, flight deck/hanger for 10t helicopter.
Missiles: 16 cell K-VLS; Cheolmae-2 MR-SAM, max. range 40 km; Haegung short range K-SAAM (4 per cell); Haeseong II supersonic Tactical Land Attack & Anti-Ship Missiles; Hong Sang Eo (Red Shark) ASROC ; 2 × 4 SSM-700K quad deck launched Haeseong sub-sonic anti-ship missiles.
Sensors: SPS-550K air search 3D radar; SPG-540K FCR; SQS-240K HMS; SQR-220KA1 TAS; SAQ-540K EOTS; Hanwha Systems IRSTs; Naval Shield Integrated CMS; LIG Nex1 SLQ-200(V)K Sonata EWS; SLQ-261K torpedo acoustic counter measures; MASS decoy launchers.
IF, if budget costs are accurate, it shows the order of magnitude of how more efficient South Korean shipyards are and by implication Chinese shipyards as they are the world's largest builders of commercial ships, makes the T31 budget look positively generous.
PS - HHI planning & design for follow-on FFX Batch III class of six started in December 2016 will be ~200 standard tons larger, 125m LOA, beam 15m, draught 5m, range 8,500nm @ 15 knots, endurance 40 days, variously reported budget as £333M /~£430M each
The main update will be the anti-air/BMD mission role, include a new MFR GaN-AESA flat panel dual polarised radar (same tech as in the new LM radars) S & X band plus four IRST sensors with the 'Sea Bow' M-SAM, said to be ABM capable system, a longer range and larger interceptor version than the land based Sky Bow SAAM.
The six FFX Batch III are set to be built by 2026, delivered by 2028?, to be followed by six Next Generation destroyers KDDX.
I've commented before on your juvenile habit of assuming all contacts are equal. You need to grow up.