• HMAS Hobart entering Port Jackson. Navantia and BIW will be submitting a design for the US FFG(X) based on Navantia's recent builds, including Australia's guided missile destroyers. Credit: Defence
    HMAS Hobart entering Port Jackson. Navantia and BIW will be submitting a design for the US FFG(X) based on Navantia's recent builds, including Australia's guided missile destroyers. Credit: Defence
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Navantia and General Dynamics Bath Iron Works (BIW) have signed a teaming agreement to collaborate on the US Navy’s next-generation FFG(X) Guided Missile Frigate program and a design likely to be similar to that fielded for Sea 5000.

Navantia S.A. chair José Esteban Garcia Vilasanchez said the two companies had shared history on the Oliver Hazard Perry/Santa Maria FFG design for Spain in the 80s.

“It is a great honour for Navantia to be able to work with Bath Iron Works again, offering our design capabilities to the US.”

“Bath Iron Works evaluated many US and foreign designs suited to the FFG(X) requirements and found that the family of frigates designed and built by Navantia is an ideal match,” BIW president Dirk Lesko said. “We look forward to continuing the productive relationship we have had with Navantia for nearly 40 years.”

The pair will collaborate on designs evolved from Navantia’s family of Aegis Frigates, which include the Norwegian Fridtjof Nansen-class (F-310) and the Spanish Alvaro de Bazan class (F-100) frigates. The latest of this family of vessels, HMAS Hobart, was commissioned recently into the Royal Australian Navy on 23rd September.

Navantia will be leveraging its successful track record of global exports for the program which requires designs that are based on a parent-design already in service.

The FFG(X) project will provide Combatant and Fleet Commanders a uniquely suitable asset to achieve select sea control objectives and perform maritime security operations while facilitating access in all domains in support of strike group and aggregated fleet operations. With an initial procurement plan of 20 units, the Detail Design and Construction award is planned for tender in 2020.

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