Horizon class frigate
French frigate Forbin, lead ship of the Horizon class
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| Class overview | |
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| Name: | Horizon class |
| Builders: | Horizon Sas (DCN, Thales, Fincantieri, Finmeccanica - Leonardo-Finmeccanica since 2016), Leonardo since 2017 |
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| In service: | 2008 |
| In commission: | 2007 |
| Planned: | 8 |
| Completed: | 4 |
| Cancelled: | 4 |
| Active: | 4 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Guided Missile Destroyer |
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| Beam: | 20.3 m (67 ft) |
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| Speed: | In excess of 29 kn (54 km/h; 33 mph) |
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| Complement: | Italia: 255 in 1, 2 or 4 beds for cabin |
| Crew: | Italia: 236, of which: 195 based-crew + 13 flight staff + 18 others |
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| Electronic warfare & decoys: |
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| Aircraft carried: | 1 x helicopter type AW-101 or SH90A |
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The Horizon class is a class of air-defence destroyers in service with the French Navy and Marina Militare.
The programme started as the Common New Generation Frigate (CNGF), a multi-national collaboration to produce a new generation of air-defence destroyers. In Italy the class is known as the Orizzonte class, which translates to "horizon" in French and English. The UK then joined France and Italy in the Horizon-class frigate programme; however, differing national requirements, workshare arguments and delays led to the UK withdrawing on 26 April 1999 and starting its own national project, the Type 45 destroyer.
The FREMM multipurpose frigate are currently under construction using the same company structure as the Horizon project.
France, Italy and the UK issued a joint requirement in 1992 after the failure of the NATO Frigate Replacement for the 90s (NFR-90) project. The resulting CNGF programme consisted of the Horizon frigate and its Principal Anti Air Missile System (PAAMS).
Problems emerged almost immediately: the primary problem was that of differing requirements: France wanted anti-aircraft warfare (AAW) escorts for its aircraft carriers, but only a limited range was necessary due to the self-defence capability of Charles de Gaulle. Italy too required only close-range capabilities, as in its home waters of the Mediterranean Sea the ships would operate under Italian Air Force cover or escorts for its aircraft carrier Cavour. The Royal Navy, however, required more capable ships which could throw a large defensive "bubble" over a fleet operating in hostile areas. The compromise which largely solved this problem was the adoption of a standard radar interface which allowed France and Italy to install the EMPAR multi-function active electronically scanned array radar and the UK to install the more capable SAMPSON active electronically scanned array radar – the SAMPSON radar has a higher data rate and an adaptive beam that allows a greater ability to track multiple targets, long-range detection of low-RCS targets, a lower false-alarm rate, and overall higher tracking accuracy.
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Wikipedia