The Horizon class (French: Classe Horizon; Italian: Classe Orizzonte) is a class of air-defencedestroyers in service with the French and Italian navies. They are designated as destroyers by the Italians[7] and using NATO classification but are referred to as "frigates" by the French. The programme started as the Common New Generation Frigate (CNGF), a three-nation collaboration between France, the United Kingdom, and Italy to develop a new generation of air-defence warships.[8] Differing national requirements, workshare disagreements and delays led to the UK withdrawing from the project in 1999 to develop the Type 45 destroyer.[9]
Problems emerged almost immediately. The primary problem was that of differing requirements: France wanted anti-aircraft warfare (AAW) escorts for its aircraft carriers, but only a limited range was necessary due to the self-defence capability of the French Charles de Gaulle. Italy too required only close-range capabilities, as in its home waters of the Mediterranean Sea the ships would operate under Italian Air Force cover or escorts for its aircraft carrier Cavour. The Royal Navy, however, required more capable ships which could throw a large defensive "bubble" over a fleet operating in hostile areas.[12] The compromise that largely solved this problem was the adoption of a standard radar interface, which allowed France and Italy to install the EMPAR multi-function passive electronically scanned array radar and the UK to install the more capable SAMPSONactive electronically scanned array radar—the SAMPSON radar has a higher data rate and an adaptive beam that allows a greater ability to track multiple targets, long-range detection of low-RCS targets, a lower false-alarm rate, and overall higher tracking accuracy.[13]
In March 1996, it was agreed that the PAAMS office would be based in Paris, and the Project Horizon project office would be based in London. The latter was to be responsible for the design of the ship, its command and control, and secondary weapons systems. Britain also agreed to contribute £100m in recognition of the development work already completed by Italy and France on PAAMS.[11] Construction would be carried out by DCN (France), GEC-Marconi (UK), and Orizzonte (Italy).[11]
UK withdrawal
On 26 April 1999, the UK announced that it was withdrawing from the CNGF project to pursue its own national design. At this point, the CNGF project was five years behind schedule.[14] The Financial Times summarised the main disagreements between the partner countries:[15]
Vessel size – As noted above, the UK's requirements were out of step with those of France and Italy. An agreement was reached but the Financial Times reported that the issue "never entirely [went] away."
Capability – The UK wanted the ships with a wide-area defence capability due to its experience in the Falklands War.
Industrial structure – The UK tried to use its larger requirement to exert influence; the UK's desire to see Marconi appointed as prime contractor was accepted by France, but only in return for DCN being given the role as prime contractor for the combat management system. The UK, which wished to see a British Aerospace-led consortium given this role, would not accept this.
The resulting Type 45 destroyer is armed with the PAAMS missile system and has benefited from investment in the Horizon project.
Franco-Italian project
Italian Caio Duilio
France and Italy continued their collaboration under the Horizon project. In September 2000, the two countries signed a contract to jointly produce four ships, ordering two ships each which would deploy the PAAMS missile system.[16] The Italian Navy ordered two units, Andrea Doria and Caio Duilio, to replace the Audace class. Andrea Doria was accepted on 22 December 2007 and received the flag of the Italian Navy. Full operation capability was achieved in the summer of 2008. The French Navy ordered two units, Forbin and Chevalier Paul, to replace the Suffren-class carrier escorts. The project cost France €2.16bn (~US$3bn) at 2009 prices.[1] A further two Horizons were cancelled; instead, the two Cassard-class frigates were to be replaced by the FREDA air-defence variant of the Franco-Italian FREMM multipurpose frigate (later known as Alsace and Lorraine). France bought 40 Aster 15 and 80 Aster 30 missiles for their ships.[1] On the Italian units, the three cannons will be upgraded to the 76 mm/62 Super Rapid Multi Feeding David/Strales version with the capacity to use the DART guided projectile in the anti-missile role.[17]
^Nicoll, Alexander (27 April 1999). "National differences scupper frigate project". Financial Times.
^"Project to build warship agreed". Financial Times. London. 17 July 1993.
^ abcGray, Bernard (23 March 1996). "Britain, France and Italy agree £7bn frigate deal". Financial Times. London.
^Gray, Bernard (23 March 1996). "Eurofrigate planned for a new world of regional conflicts". Financial Times. London.
^Dranidis, Dimitris V. (May 2003). "Backboards of the fleet: shipboard phased-array radars; a survey of requirements, technologies, and operational systems". Journal of Electronic Defense. 26 (5): 55.
^Nicoll, Alexander; Owen, David (27 April 1999). "European warship project collapses as UK withdraws". Financial Times. London.
^Nicoll, Alexander (27 April 1999). "National differences scupper frigate project". Financial Times.
_underway_in_the_Arabian_Sea_on_31_May_2009_(090531-N-9988F-406).jpg)
