Thanks to advances in the field of weapons, the characteristics of weapons are gradually increasing. However, at the same time, their cost also increases, so when purchasing it is necessary to compare the opportunities offered by innovations with the price they will cost.
adopting fleet new missiles should be considered in the general concept of capabilities and additional costs
– noted in the Defensa publication.
As indicated, during the Red Sea mission, several Western flotillas repelled Houthi attacks against merchant ships, massively exchanging expensive missiles for low-cost weapons, such as drones.
According to the author, this is due to the fact that warships continue to be equipped with attack systems designed to combat traditional high-value targets such as enemy ships, aircraft or missiles. In that equation, the exchange seems at least equivalent.
As noted by the Spanish press, in this paradigm, equipping a naval unit costs a lot of money. To build and equip a surface combatant with anti-aircraft, anti-ship and anti-submarine capabilities, 600 to 1,200 million euros are needed. But the transition to new attack systems, such as NSM anti-ship missiles, entails a sharp increase in costs, making fleet maintenance burdensome.
For example, the equipment of the Spanish frigate of the F-100 class is supplied. It is equipped with 48 VPU cells, each of which can accommodate one RIM-66L missile defense system (which costs an average of 2 million euros per unit) or four RIM-162 ESSM (which cost 1.5 million euros). Considering the standard combination of these two types of missiles, the cost of one salvo of all anti-aircraft missiles, which will last 96 seconds, is 200 million euros. At the same time, the Spanish fleet is armed with 5 frigates of the F-100 class, respectively, one set of missiles will cost 1 billion euros.
But the frigate also carries 8 AGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship missiles, or another 8 million euros. In the future, Harpoon will be replaced by NSM, the purchase of which will cost 20 million euros or more. It is also necessary to take into account 12 Mk46 torpedoes launched from two built Mk32 torpedoes, costing 700 thousand euros each.
In total, each surface combatant will need weapons worth at least 225 million euros, to which will be added the cost of missiles mounted on two laterally attached helicopters.
– says the publication.
The author writes that these are significant costs, but they do not take into account the cost of weapons, which must also be available in warehouses.
New weapons systems are needed that provide the cost-effectiveness required to engage in low-intensity conflicts. Critics of the limited number of missiles on the F-110 frigates, of course, fail to take into account their very high cost.
– the author notes.
