Good news for the European missile boat MBDA! The Philippine Navy has selected the SIMBAD-RC systemto provide close protection for its two new José Rizal class frigates.
The SIMBAD-RC is an automatic close protection system against air targets, drones, missiles and light craft, using 2 MBDA Mistral missiles, providing effective coverage within a radius of 6 km around the building. Reloading, manual, is very fast, so as to maintain optimum defensive capacities.
The two frigates, derived from the HDF-3000 of the Korean group Hyundai Heavy Industry, and of which the keel of the first unit was laid in October 2018, will weigh 2600 tonnes and be 107 m long, will be equipped with a 76mm Oto Melara cannon , 4 SSM-700K C-Star anti-ship missiles, two SIMBAD-RC systems, 3 triple torpedo tubes for K745 Blue Shark light torpedo, and the possibility of adding 8 vertical silos for anti-aircraft missiles including the type has not yet been specified, and a very short-range CIWS defense system.
They will be able to use a medium AW159 Wildcat helicopter from Westland, and will have a high-performance radar and sonar suite.
It is obvious that the “frigate” classification is somewhat usurped, the buildings responding more to the format and capabilities of a corvette, such as the Gowind 2500 from Naval Group.