Defense & Security 2025: Hanwha Ocean prepares bid for new Thai frigate requirement

Hanwha Ocean displayed a model of its frigate proposal for the RTN at the Defense & Security 2025 show in Bangkok. (Janes/Jon Grevatt)

Hanwha Ocean is preparing a bid to meet the Royal Thai Navy's (RTN's) requirement to procure an additional multi-purpose frigate. The South Korean company displayed a model of the frigate it is proposing for the programme at the Defense & Security 2025 show in Bangkok, where it has also firmed up the vessel's proposed weapons fit.

Hyunrok Park, manager of Hanwha Ocean's naval ship global marketing team, told Janes that the new design, which Hanwha Ocean calls Ocean-40F, envisages a warship that is bigger and more lethal than the Bhumibol Adulyadej-class frigate Hanwha Ocean supplied to the RTN in 2018 under the service's procurement of its initial multi-purpose frigate.

“This new design is based on the first frigate supplied to the RTN,” said Park. “But this is larger and has more firepower compared with the first vessel.” He added that the new frigate design stems from RTN feedback on the initial frigate, which “indicated clearly that the RTN required a larger and more capable vessel for its second frigate programme”.

According to Hanwha Ocean, the Ocean-40F has a length of 124 m and displaces about 4,000 tonnes. The HTMS Bhumibol Adulyadej frigate measures 123 m in length and has a 3,750 tonne displacement. The initial frigate featured a baseline crew complement of 136 personnel, while the new design has a complement of more than 145 crew.

Firepower

On the new design, firepower increases with the inclusion of several MBDA weapons including two Exocet MM40 Block 3C surface-to-surface guided weapons, a 16-cell vertical launching system (VLS) for VL-MICA surface-to-air missiles (SAMs), and SIMBAD (Système Intégré de MISTRAL Bitube d'Auto-Défense) air-defence systems.