Final design and technical review of future Constellation-Class FFG 62 frigate for US Navy

On its Twitter account, Fincantieri Marine Group has released a picture on January 14, 2021, showing artist rendering of the final design for the Future Constellation Class FFG 62 frigate that is being developed by Fincantieri Marinette Marine for the US Navy.
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Artist rendering of the final design of future Constellation-Class frigate FFG 62 for U.S. Navy. (Picture source Fincantieri Marinette Marine)

According to a U.S. Congress report published in December 2020, the Constellation (FFG-62) class frigate program, previously known as the FFG(X) program, is a U.S. Navy program to build a class of 20 guided-missile frigates (FFGs). Congress funded the procurement of the first FFG-62 class ship in FY2020 at a cost of $1,281.2 million.

Four industry teams were competing for the FFG-62 program. On April 30, 2020, the U.S. Navy announced that it had awarded the FFG-62 contract to the team led by Fincantieri/Marinette Marine (F/MM) of Marinette, WI. F/MM was awarded a fixed-price incentive (firm target) contract for Detail Design and Construction (DD&C) for up to 10 ships in the program—the lead ship plus nine option ships.

According to the requirements of the U.S. Navy, the Constellation Class FFG 62 pis to be a multimission small surface combatant capable of conducting anti-air warfare (AAW), anti-surface warfare (ASuW), antisubmarine warfare (ASW), and electromagnetic warfare (EMW) operations.

The Constellation-Class frigate FFG 62 will have a length of 151.8 m, a draft of 5.5 m, a beam of 19.7 m, and an LS displacement of 6,016 tons. The ship will be powered by a diesel-electric and gas (CODLAG) propulsion system including one gas turbine, two electric motors, 4 ship service Diesel generators, and one auxiliary propulsion system. She will be able to reach a maximum speed of 26 knots with a maximum cruising range of 6,000 nautical miles at a speed of 16 knots.

The Constellation-Class FFG 62 will be armed with one Mk 110 57mm naval gun, 32 Mk 41 VLS (Vertical Launching System), 16 NSM Naval Strike anti-ship Missiles, one Mk 49 RAM surface-to-air missile system, and four Mk 53 MOD 9 DLSs (Decoy Launching Systems).

Sensors suite of the Constellation-Class FFG 62 frigate will include Aegis integrated naval weapons system, an Enterprise Air Surveillance Radar (EASR), and Raytheon’s AN/SPY-6(V)3 active electronically scanned array air and missile defense active electronically scanned array 3D radar. The ship has a flight deck and a hangar able to accommodate one MH-60 Seahawk naval helicopter and an MQ-8C Fire Scout unmanned aircraft system. The ship will have a crew of 200 people including 24 officers and 176 enlisted.