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Joshua Kintner wrote:

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Basic concept was to come up with a frigate capable of operating in say, the Persian Gulf, that would be economical and a simple ship, and she is similar in apperance to the Oliver Hazard Perry class FFGs, but different in some ways. Her armament consists of an OTO Melara 3" gun forward, and two Bushmaster 25mm cannons aft for gun armament, while two quad launchers in "B" position, with either MM38 Exocet or the lightweight version of Harpoon being used. Finally, there is a RAM 21 missile CIWS launcher sitting on top of the hangar. Install a lightweight version of AEGIS which is like the one used on the Japanese Kongo class, a conventional propulsion system, add a helicopter for ASW work, and that pretty much rounds out the ship.

The Kongos don't really have a lightweight AEGIS -- they have the same SPY-1D as in the Burkes, which is only a bit lighter than the SPY-1A and -1B in the Ticonderoga's. Lightweight AEGIS implies SPY-1F (as in the Norwegian frigates) or even SPY-1K (proposed but not ordered). But why have AEGIS if you aren't going to give it anything to control? At a minimum, I'd want 4 cells for 16 ESSM with SPY-1K or 8 to 16 cells with a mix of ESSM and SM-2MR (12+5 to 32+8 depending on budgets) with SPY-1F. That probably does take the ship out of the pure economy level for anyone but the USN, but it's a solid capability for independent operations.

If you want to leave out radar-guided SAMs, you can drop AEGIS/SPY-1 and use one of the rotating phased arrays used in LCS and other low-end combatants (TRS-3D, Sea Giraffe AMB, MRR, etc.) Those are a much more economical match to a RAM-based air-defense suite. If you're relying on RAM, install two launchers (perhaps Sea RAM) for redundancy.

In terms of minor-caliber guns, for the USN I'd make sure to at least specify Mk 38 Mod 2 stabilized mounts, as the original is very poor versus moving targets. And I'd strongly consider the MK 46 30m turret as in LPD-17, since it can add air-bursting munitions for a more useful air-defense role. For a non-USN ship, there are lots of other worth alternatives, but the Millennium 35mm is a good one, again with ABM rounds.

As for missiles, MM38 is long obsolete. MM40 has been the standard since the 1990s, and Mod 3 is the newest version. As far as Harpoon, I see no reason to specify the super-light launcher (Mk 140) designed for the PHMs. The standard Mk 141 quad launcher is light enough for a ship like this and is far more robust.

I recognize that your drawing is basic, but a ship specified in the last decade really needs to make at least a passing nod toward signature reduction. Stealth is too valuable to ignore, even if you don't center the design around it.