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The Royal New Zealand Navy has turned its aging Leander-class frigates—including the HMNZS Canterbury (F-421)—into a first-class combat force in the Pacific.
The Royal New Zealand Navy’s surface combatants have an exciting decade ahead. The nation is committed to building two new frigates as part of the combined ANZAC frigate project, while two of the present four Leander-c\ass frigates are being refitted for service into the 21st century. HMNZS Canterbury, built for the Royal New Zealand Navy in 1971, and HMNZS Wellington, bought secondhand from the United Kingdom and then extensively refitted, are both undergoing a steady Process of upgrading.
Upgrading the Leander-class frigates became an essential task for the Royal New Zealand Navy in the 1980s, after the New Zealand government rejected a proposal to Purchase Dutch-built Kortenaer-c\ass ships as replacement frigates. In 1982, the Royal New Zealand Navy acquired two frigates from Britian’s Royal Navy to join New Zealand’s two purpose-built frigates the Waikato and the Canterbury. The objective was to refit and upgrade the ships so they could continue in service while New Zealand decided on—and then built—its future combat ships. That decision has since been made, and the Royal New Zealand Navy is a full partner with the Royal Australian Navy in the ANZAC frigate project.
The Leander-class frigates needed extensive refitting, especially after the frigate-replacement studies dragged along into the late 1980s. One tough decision was made early: HMNZS Waikato would miss out on the full upgrades; instead, she and HMNZS Southland are earmarked for early replacement when the ANZAC frigates are delivered. For the other two frigates to remain operational beyond the end of the century, the needs were clear: The gunnery system, the sensors (radar, sonar, and electronic- warning systems), the communications suite, and the command system had to be modernized. The Falklands Conflict and subsequent operations in the Persian Gulf also provided a harsh series of lessons in ship survivability, which any upgrade would have to take into account.
The gunnery system was the first to be upgraded. A U.S. system designed and built by the RCA Corporation— the R76-C5 fire-control system—was selected and installed. The Wellington gained hers during the long postdelivery refit at Devonport in the mid-1980s; the Canter- burv was refitted with her gunnery system in 1990. The electronic warfare suite also needed improvement, and the ArgoSystems radar-detection system and SRBOC missile decoy launchers were installed. In addition, the electron tube technology of the existing sonar sets was a maintenance nightmare, so the Graseby G750 sonar replaced the old Type 177, and one other sonar set was removed without replacement.
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The air surveillance radar was replaced with the Dutch- built LWO-8 long-range set, while the existing British
Type 993 surface surveillance radar was upgraded to Type 994 standard. To integrate all these into the command-and- control process required new equipment, and, for that, the Royal New Zealand Navy was determined to find a state-of-the-art system that could meet the demands of the 1990s.
Recognizing the need for more experience in computer combat applications, the Royal New Zealand Navy deliberately had chosen HMS Dido in 1982, when obliged to accept the two second-hand ships. She had a mainframe- based combat-data system known as ADAWS, which was designed to control the ship’s antisubmarine capability. Now commissioned as HMNZS Southland, she has played a key role in extending the Royal New Zealand Navy’s software support capability and in teaching the new branch of software engineers the demands of an integrated weapons system at sea.
But ADAWS was not suitable for refitting into the other ships; advances in computer technology and in software options meant that the Royal New Zealand Navy could specify an up-to-date solution that could be readily installed and remain affordable. After considering a range of tender responses, the naval staff short-listed three companies: one each from France, Sweden, and Britain. In a competitive selection process, the British Naval Autonomous Information System (NAutlS), manufactured by Siemens-Plessey, was chosen.
NAutlS is a distributed processing local-area computer network that uses a third-generation language. Five independent consoles, each with a series of Intel 80286 microprocessors, are joined by the command system highway, a common data link. Specific consoles have dedicated processors for their particular roles—air control and underwater warfare, for example—but there also is deliberate redundancy in each console to give flexibility in the event of battle damage. The Wellington’s operations room is laid out similar to the old pattern, in order to retain the central presentation of tactical information to the command and to simplify installation. The new system integrates all the combat information gained from the surveillance radars, the sonar equipment, the electronic warfare suite, and lookouts as well as information reported by other ships or friendly aircraft. The full impact of the upgrade project in the Wellington is dramatically apparent as the new generation of sensors and weapon systems provide the ship with more accurate data. The NAutlS system in the Wellington has brought state-of-the-art computer applications to the Royal New Zealand Navy.
Less dramatic factors are at work, too. The Royal New Zealand Navy not only refitted the ships electronically but also shoehomed in equipment that was not even imagined when the Wellington and her sister ships were designed. The sewage treatment plants are an example: local—and international—standards for water quality preclude the discharge of raw sewage. Consequently, each frigate complies with two American-designed Omnipure plants, installed fore and aft. But such improvements bring a new array of high-tech problems. For example, the electrolytic conversion of sea water into sodium hypochlorite as part of the treatment process means that there is now a danger of toxic gas buildup. Operation of the toxic gas detectors has now been added to the other responsibilities of the en
gineers, while the ships’ ventilation systems have had to be carefully modified.
Inside the frigates, the deadly lessons of the Falklands and the Persian Gulf wars have also been applied. Heavy smoke curtains, emergency-breathing apparatus, larger escape hatches, and special luminescent markings are apparent. Firefighting equipment abounds, and damage-control exercises have a new emphasis.
Late in 1993, after an extensive workup with the Royal Austrailan Navy off Sydney, the Wellington sailed to Singapore for Exercise Starfish. There, ships and aircraft of the partner nations in the Five Power Defence Arrangement—Britain, Malaysia, Singapore, New Zealand, and Australia—collectively provided a critical test for the upgraded New Zealand frigate. In the demanding environment of the South China Sea, the Wellington—with her new command-and-control system and other electronic upgrades—proved herself fit to fight through the next decade.
But the improvements will not stop with the current upgrade. Three additional upgrade projects recently have gained government approval:
► Link 11—a computer radio data link for automatic combat information transfer between cooperating ships and aircraft
► A track-management system—for integration and fusion of radar data
► A high-frequency radio communications upgrade These will be installed in the Canterbury during her 199-1 refit (when NAutlS also is installed) and in the Wellington during convenient maintenance periods over the nex< two years.
An improved identification friend or foe (IFF) systen1 is presently under consideration and may gain formal approval this year. IFF is a key problem in fast-moving combat, and the new IFF Mark XII will equip our ships to identify radar contacts properly.
Other possible improvements await broader government reaction to the series of Defence Force Structure Review51 and the new tri-service Defence Consolidated Resource Plan. Inevitably, the Army and the Air Force have competing and equally well-founded needs for major equipment purchases.
An obvious question mark lies over the now-obsoletf Seacat antiaircraft missile system, because a proved close- in weapon system like the Vulcan-Phalanx rapid-fire cannon could replace it. The Wasp helicopters, too, are severely limited in today’s environment, but they have shown how essential helicopters are to modern naval operations. Australia’s Seahawk helicopters are too big, but the Westland Lynx or the Aerospatiale Panther, for example- can operate from Leander-class ships.
There is more to come for the Leanders. Although the ships’ profiles may show little change, these two frigate5- along with the ANZAC frigates now under construction- represent New Zealand’s continuing commitment to a credible combat force in the Pacific.
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Proceedings / March
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Commander Jackson is a 1972 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy af is currently the Director of Corporate Relations Policy, Headquarter New Zealand Defence Force.