This is Spanish frigate Alvaro de Bazan (F-101) , the most modern frigate of Europe. Ita has Aegis system incorporated.Nobody would have said that it was going to be in the Gulf just now in Operation "Enduring Freedom".
Well, it is.
This Mr. Zapatero, the pacifist....
Oh and, HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL.
11 comments:
Very interesting.... I wonder who else has them? And why would the US sell them to Spain of all people.... I guess we're extending our force, but still keeping control by tying them to a carrier group. It's quite a prize! Hopefully they'll keep it strategically located to shoot down any missiles coming from Iran....
If you read the links carefully there is also one ship from Germany.
Greetings.
An Aegis? A lot goes on "behind the scenes" that we don't know about... at least I sure don't.. I was looking around on the navy website, and it looks like the US has bunches of them in various platforms, which is incredibly good news... Although I'm sure the left would have fits if they knew we were preparing, and not waiting to be sitting ducks.
God bless our military!!
Wow, I have no idea what you two are talking about.
Shows you how much I know about the Navy.
Aegis is a US Sea-based Ballistic Missile Defense. You can read about it here:
http://www.news.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=4741
At first, only US could use it. But Bush allowed Spain (when Aznar) to have it on our ships.
In that web you can search for AEGIS and there are a lot of information.
This is interesting, from my Uncle, ex-Navy Big Shot at the Pentagon (retired) (brag, brag, brag,,, I'm very proud of him:>)
"Originally Aegis was an ACRONYM standing for Active Electronic Gimballess Inertial System; however, the definition was subsequently dropped and the name changed to be the invincible goat skin shield Zeus gave to Athena; so it is no longer an ACRONYM. In the U.S. it is aboard the DDG 51 and CG 47 class ships. It is a shipboard phased-array radar-based integrated combat system capable of automatically detecting, tracking, and destroying airborne, seaborne, and land-launched weapons and targets. Submarines can't use it because of the large phased-array radars required for it. However, they try to do similar things using their sonar systems.
Right now only the U.S., Japan and Spain have the system. Others are trying to copy it, including China which got information on it from their spies that are now in the news. Israel does not have one, but is working on a similar system.
"Very interesting.... I wonder who else has them? And why would the US sell them to Spain of all people...."
Actually the frigate itself was not "sold" to Spain. What the US sold Spain was the AEGIS system.
However, AEGIS was not originally designed for a frigate class ship, but for much larger ships. It was the idea of Spanish engineers to fit the system into a frigate class ship.
I'm no expert in this field, but from what I have read, american vendors began to show interest in the project when they saw the work in progress in Spain, so thay offered to jump in the project, joint-venture like.
So in the end this new version of AEGIS, remodelled for its integration into a smaller ship than was originally intended, was co-developed between the US and Spain.
Spanish versions of these frigates are being built by Spain, but the US company responsible for the AEGIS has partnered with Spain to build a lesser version of these frigates and sell them to other countries. The first batch has been sold to Norway.
Regarding the F-101 being in the Gulf integrated in a US carrier group. Well, nothing is what it seems at first sight.
This had to be done for the spanish crew to familiarize with the AEGIS system and also to ultimately testing this newly developed ship.
As a matter of fact, the F-101 is navigating under severely restricting rules of engagement issued by the spanish government to the Spanish Navy, and which forbid any kind of combat action. I wouldn't like to be in the place of that ship's captain in the case someone fired a missile against the carrier group. I just wouldn't know what to do.
In case you want to know more about these frigates, and about F-101's role in the Gulf, I recommend you to follow this link.
http://www.guerrasposmodernas.com/2005/la-inocentada-de-la-fragata/
It has loads of information regarding this matter. If you can't read Spanish, use babelfish or any other online translation service.
My mistake... the link is incomplete:
La Inocentada de la Fragata
Well, I know what I'd do... Shoot down the missile, and face court marshall if that be the case. There's no way I'd let my fellow sailors die because of some retarded command by a socialist pig.
Of course that's assuming the frigate is the only Aegis platform in the area, which it likely is not, considering the directive to not employ it's system.
No, that isn't the most modern Spanish frigate. That's is a second hand Knox class frigate sold to Mexico. You can see a MBB Bö-105 helo from the Mexican Navy above it.
Hi,the warship is a Baleares frigate class (Knox class), not is Alvaro de Bazán
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