A new fleet of pan-European warships built to a common design moved a step closer after seven EU members agreed on core features for the European Combat Vessel (ECV).
The European Defence Agency (EDA) project seeks to deliver a set of three modular and interoperable warships for the seven nations signed up to the programme: Belgium, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain.
The new warships, expected to come into service in the 2040s, will come in three sizes: small (roughly 3.000 tons); medium (between 4,500 and 6,000 tons); and large (7,000 to 8,000 tons).
The EDA has announced that seven member nations have now collectively agreed the warship’s High-Level Requirements (HLRs). It explained: “These define what the ECV must be able to do, under what conditions, and to what level of performance.”
The warship will be capable of operating as a flagship with command and control (C2) capabilities able to operate in contested, degraded and denied environments. Its combat management system (CMS) will be AI-enabled with multi-sensor, multi-domain data fusion and decision support, and fully integrated with weapons, EW, ISR and uncrewed teaming systems.
It will also feature full-spectrum capability across all maritime domains and will be primed to counter asymmetric threats as well as cyber and other electronic warfare attacks. It’s expected to feature directed energy weapons as part of its counter-UAS mix, as well as hypersonic/ballistic missile defence systems.
The next step will be to produce risk and feasibility studies for the ECV ships, and ultimately a business case.
As per the EDA, the ECV is “designed to safeguard Europe’s maritime security and global sea lines of communication. Built on a systems-to-hull approach, it strengthens EU defence cohesion, standardisation and defragmentation, while remaining fully coherent with NATO targets.”
Aside from obvious interoperability benefits, the rationale behind producing the ECV under a common programme is to leverage economies of scale in terms of standardisation and industrial cooperation as well as reducing potential training and logistics costs.
Navy Leaders has written a long-form editorial feature about future frigates and the ECV programme: you can download a free copy by following this link: Frigates Of The Future: Specialists Or All-Rounders?
- You can read more details about the ECV programme on the EDA website
