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After winning the title as the owner of the most advanced submarine (Invicible class/Type 218SG) and surface warship (frigate Formidable class) in Southeast Asia, there is further news that will make the Singapore Navy appear more robust and unrivaled in the region.
Namely, Singapore has announced the construction of the largest combatant ship in Southeast Asia, namely the Multi Role Combat Vessels (MRCV) which weighs up to 10,000 tons.
Out of habit, the 10,000 ton MRCV is said to be a project to replace the 650 ton Victory class corvette fleet which will be retired in 2028. Currently, the Defense Science and Technology Agency Singapore - Defense Science and Technology Agency (DSTA) has started preparations in developing and building the 10,000 tonne MRCV.
During the Singapore Defense Technology Summit on March 22 2023, DSTA was reported to have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Saab Sweden. As part of the MOU between DSTA and Saab, the two sides will jointly develop and design a new MRCV for the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN), and will cover technology development including artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics to meet the high digitization requirements of the new ship.
Saab in this project will provide technical assistance by providing work engagements and internships to Singaporeans in relation to surface ship design, naval and digital technology, composite structure repair, radar repair and other technical competences.
In a separate announcement, Singapore Technologies Engineering Ltd (ST Engineering) confirmed that its subsidiary ST Marine Engineering Ltd had been awarded a contract from the Ministry of Defense of Singapore for the detailed design and construction of six MRCVs.
Apart from providing technical assistance, Saab will act as prime contractor for the MRCV project. While the MRCV design will adopt the Iver Huitfeldt/Absalon class frigate from Denmark's Odense Maritime Technology (OMT).
The Singapore Navy MRCV appears completely digital and sophisticated, as it will be equipped with a sophisticated electric propulsion system, and can be equipped with the Thales Sea Fire radar, MBDA ASTER and VL Mica missiles, and the unique weapon modules are designed using the mission containerized modules concept.
More remarkably, the Singapore MRCV is also designed to act as a carrier for smaller manned and unmanned surface, subsurface, and air systems, with a broad spectrum of missions to maximize combat effectiveness. After being used by Singapore, the new MRCV can become the largest surface combatant ship of any navy in Southeast Asia.
- Vanguard 130
The idea for the MRCV project began in 2018. At that time ST Engineering Marine released the Vanguard 130 design, which is a type of warship with a length of 130 meters and a displacement of 5,000 tons.
The Vanguard 130 is optimized to enable unmanned vehicle operations, with large doors on either side of the hull allowing easy access for launching and recovering remotely operated vehicles (ROV) and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV).
The vessels can also be equipped with ST Engineering's Launch and Recovery System (LARS) for rigid hull inflatable boats (RHIB), and a system for unmanned surface vessels (USV) known as Q-LARS 2.0.
The Vanguard 130 can accommodate a 15-tonne helicopter or rotary wing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) on the flight deck, and space in its mission bay and storage area for up to eight 20-foot containerized mission modules.
Weapons to be installed on the Vanguard 130 include a 76 mm gun, anti-ship missile launcher, vertical launch system (VLS) for hand missiles, and remote control weapon stations (RCWS) on the bridge wings and other locations aft. Torpedo tubes can also be installed amidships.
However, with the agreement between ST Marine Engineering and Saab on the MRCV development project, the Vanguard 130 design was automatically discontinued.
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