“Upgraded Mogami” Is The New “New FFM”, Looking At Australia

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) at the Indian Ocean Defence & Security Conference 2024 (IODS24) in Perth, Western Australia, revealed new information on the Mogami frigate-successor previously known as “New FFM”. The program, now dubbed “Upgraded Mogami”, carries significant importance to Australia. This is because the effort is widely understood to represent MHI’s effective offer of a general purpose-frigate (GP-F) to the Royal Australian Navy. Australia seeks to procure up to 11 GP-F capable to perform a wide range of missions. The Japanese presentation ostensibly aims directly at the Australian “Tier 2”-requirement intended to supplement “Tier 1”-combatants such as the Hobart-class AAW destroyer and the “Hunter”-class ASW-frigate.

Mogami-successor in context of Australian “Tier 2”

The Australian government intends to buy the first three frigates as overseas builds, touted as “unmodified” from an existing builder specification. Subsequent units will then see local production in Australia, possibly including substantial modifications.

The independent review establishing the foundations for an expanded Australian surface combatant fleet listed four, realistically five “exemplar”-designs. These include the German Meko A-200, Spanish Alfa 3000, Korean FFX Batch II/III and Japanese Mogami class FFG. Notably MHI since the Indo Pacific International Maritime Exhibition 2023 prominently advertised the “New FFM”-successor to the Mogami-class FFG. MHI has a contract for twelve Mogami-class general purpose frigates for the Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Force (JMSDF). The design focuses on ASW, patrol and mine warfare, emphasizing affordability over multirole capability. The Mogami-procurement notably features a scaling down of the original program for 24 frigates of the type. After delivering the 12th Mogami in 2027 MHI will instead move on to construction of the “New FFM”-successor. The new design, now termed “Upgraded Mogami” includes more capable anti-air capability and increased weapons load. The ship nevertheless maintains the lean crewing of the Mogami-class frigate.

“Upgraded Mogami” represents a significant evolution of the original design, growing the frigate in size and capability. However, compared to the design shown at Indopacific 2023 the updated presentation now displayed at IODS24 appears to indicate an adjusted effort more in line with a Mogami-evolution compared to the slightly larger design shown before.

Minor tweaks compared to “New FFM”

The current proposal envisions a hull 142 metres long, similar to the previous “New FFM”-figure. However, the beam is reduced to 17 metres, compared to 17.4 metres before. While seemingly a minor reduction, beam modifications are always a significant structural modification. An existing design usually accommodates such a change within a narrow margin, before a completely new hull design is required. Displacement for the upgraded Mogami-design is 4,880 tons, compared to Mogami-tonnage given as 3,900 tons. These figures too are notable insofar as previous figures for both designs were 6,200 tons and 5,250 tons respectively. The discrepancy comes down to swapping full load-figures to standard load-displacement for both designs. Even so the full displacement for the “Upgraded Mogami” should fall slightly compared to the figure given at the Indopacific 2023-presentation.

This is an interesting revision by MHI. Mogami represented by far the heaviest design among the four “exemplars” named by the Independent Review. Much like the name-change the tweak may enhance MHI’s pitch of the design as solution for the Australian “Tier 2″requirement, supplementing the Mogami-class in this capacity.

Other characteristics remain unchanged for the most part. “Upgraded Mogami” still features a 32 cell VLS, a Sea RAM missile CIWS, eight antiship missiles in two quadruple launchers amidships, a 127 mm main gun and a phased array radar built into an “integrated mast”. Said integrated mast represents a further modification via several options. At IODS24 MHI showed not only the default configuration of “New FFM” presumably favored by JMSDF. In addition the builder displayed two alternate mast configurations. As Naval News understands, one of these caters to the requirements of a notional export customer.

Delivery timeframe of “Upgraded Mogami” for JMSDF

It is worth noting in this context that MHI did not display a Mogami-class frigate at IODS24. The Japanese industry booth did show a small model of Mogami at Indopacific 2023, although “New FFM” also dominated that particular display. For JMSDF the delivery schedule by MHI envisions a conclusion of Mogami-class deliveries by 2028. MHI has not provided an official delivery timeframe for “Upgraded Mogami”, ie “New FFM”. A published construction schedule will see work commence on “Upgraded Mogami” in 2025, with launch of the first two hulls by 2027. Naval News understands the plan is to deliver no less than three ships before the end of 2029 and conclude delivery of all twelve frigates to JMSDF by 2033.

Australian prospects improved by Navy Chief remarks and NSM integration

The Japanese bid for “Tier 2” also appears to have received an implicit endorsement by Australian Navy Chief Vice Admiral Mark Hammond. In a podium discussion at IODS24 Vice Admiral Hammond highlighted Japanese efforts to reduce crew figures on their surface combatants. Such measures result in a core crew complement on Mogami of 90 sailors. “Upgraded Mogami” will feature a similar crew size. The Australian Navy, same as other Western naval services struggles with recruitment. The service therefore is putting an emphasis on leaner crewing for their future combatants. Similar to competing foreign offers however the Japanese proposal is notably opaque on relevant adaptions for the RAN.

These changes would logically include local standards for safety and electrical equipment. Naval News also understands RAN has preferences requiring adjustments for the combat management system and armament of a successful bid. One notable event that may improve prospects is a release by the Japanese MoD seeking applications for work concerning the integration of the NSM antiship missile onto Japanese naval combat platforms. As Naval News understands, this effort aims to integrate NSM as a complement to Type 17 and Improved Type 12 AShM onto relevant Japanese naval combatants. Such a step would also ensure “Upgraded Mogami”-capability to mount a weapon system currently in use with the RAN. In addition this plan offers a prospect to deliver offsets via NSM sourced from a notional Australian production line.

The decision timeframe for government on a possible down-select and further requirement refinements remains a significant question mark. A down-select and clarification of core requirements before the end of 2024 would appear preferable to meet the desired delivery timeframe. The prospect of an Australian federal election in early 2025 however may push this decision point further to the right and as such jeopardize a core motivation of the GP-F effort.

Watch our interviews with an MHI representative and a JMSDF Commander on the upgraded FFM at IODS24: