FLEETS #24: Republic of Singapore Navy, Royal New Zealand Navy and Lithuanian Naval Force today

Written by D-Mitch

This is the sixth article about various countries' navies today. In these articles, I briefly describe a country's naval fleet by reporting the ships in each type/category of warships and by providing a nice image where all the types of warships are illustrated and the units of its class are reported. I include the vessels that will enter in service this year and I have excluded those that are about to be decommissioned. I deliberately excluded many classes of auxiliary ships; those that they have "0" defence capacity and those that have secondary roles such as hydrographic survey ships, tugs, depollution vessels and training ships.

Formidable class frigates of the Republic of Singapore Navy

Written by D-Mitch

RSS Formidable leading vessel of the Formidable class frigates
Photo: Republic of Singapore Navy

The Formidable class frigates are multi-mission stealth frigates of the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) or else Angkatan Laut Republik Singapura, which are quipped with state of the art weapons and electronics. DCNS was awarded in 2000 by the Republic of Singapore Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) to design and to build six frigates of the project Delta, a smaller derivative of La Fayette class of French Navy, but with much more advanced characteristics such as low radar cross-section, acoustic, infrared and electromagnetic signatures, better sea keeping qualities and increased endurance but also equipment and weapons. The agreement included a technology transfer after the construction of the first frigate at DCNS' Lorient yard in France while five more were built in Singapore by the Singapore Technology Marine (STM) at the Benoi shipyard. The first of the class, RSS Formidable was launched in 2004 and she was commissioned in 2007. All the ships were commissioned the period 2007-2009, they are the only frigates serving in RSS and they form the 185 Squadron. The frigates of the class, due to their advanced armament and electronics, are considered among the most advanced surface combatants in Southeast Asia!