U.S. Navy Builds Constellation-class Frigates with Massive Firepower

File Video Above: Navy Takes Next Step With New Lethal Flight III Destroyer

*ICYMI, a Warrior Maven Top Article of 2021. Republished For Viewer Interest

By Kris Osborn – President & Editor-In-Chief, Warrior Maven

(Washington, D.C.) The U.S. Navy is massively arming its first Constellation-class Frigate as part of an ambitious and high-op-tempo move to deliver as many as 15 of the new ships within the next five years.

Designed by Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri Marinette Marine, the new 7400-pound ship will be armed with 32 missile-firing Vertical Launch Systems able to fire SM-3, SM-6 and even Tomahawk missiles. 

The ship will also operate with a deck-mounted Mk 110 57mm gun, advanced, high-tech Enterprise Air Surveillance Radar (EASR), Electronic Warfare systems and Rolling Airframe Missiles, among other weapons. The final specs for the ship are now being established, assessed and refined for upcoming production.

Bridge Design

“Bridge design is something we are going after right now. If you walk on a 51 bridge (DDG 51 Destroyer), it is cluttered with a lot going on up there. We want to have a very clean bridge, kind of like an LCS but more of a Fincantieri design where you have a functional display. The watch sailor needs to look out the window and drive the ship,” Capt. Keven Smith, Program Manager, Constellation-class Frigate, said last year at the 2021 Surface Navy Association Symposium. (He spoke again this year in 2022 .. story coming).