New Armed Constellation-class Frigates to Strengthen Critical Warfare Mission Gaps

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

Helicopters, drones, over-the-horizon attack missiles, missile defense radar and deck-mounted guns are all key elements of the Navy’s vision for its emerging Constellation-class Frigates intended to fill a critical mission gap between the lighter, shallow-water Littoral Combat Ship and heavily-armed “blue water” warships such as cruisers and destroyers.

“The ships will perform surface warfare, electromagnetic warfare and air warfare. In a lot of ways it is like a DDG (Destroyer), it just does not have all the magazine capacity and does not have all the armament you would expect of a DDG. This is a Frigate,” Capt. Kevin Smith, Frigate Program Manager told an audience at the 2022 Surface Navy Association Symposium.

At the same time, make no mistake, these Frigates will be armed and combat capable warships equipped with over-the-horizon Naval Strike Missiles, Rolling Airframe Missiles and the Mk 48 Gun Weapons System. The ship will operate with one MH-60R SeaHawk helicopter and one drone, supported by Vertical Launch Systems and Variable Depth Sonar for submarine hunting.

Constellation-class Frigates

Smith described the Frigates mission as a “hybrid” or multi-purpose approach, meaning it can perform heavy, open-water maritime warfare missions, yet also fill critical mission gaps such as escort operations or protecting valuable assets.

“Its an agile, multi-mission platform and just like a DDG, its going to be dual purpose. For things like escort missions for high value units, it is going to take a lot of the workload off of the DDGs and the Cruisers out there,” Smith said.

Missions to escort and protect groups of otherwise vulnerable surface ships passing through critical strategic waterways may not need the weapons range and full force firepower of a destroyer, yet it will clearly need to be armed and ready for maritime warfare in the event of an attack. By performing these missions, Frigates can free up Cruiser and Destroyer for heavier ocean war missions. 

Constellation-class Frigates Aegis Radar

Also of great significance when it comes to the question of maritime warfare capability, the Constellation-class Frigates are being equipped with Aegis radar, a ballistic missile defense system combining sensitive radar for threat tracking with ship-integrated fire control and interceptor weapons.