VS the Visby-class

[BradOrbital]

In your opinion, what is a viable competitor for the Visby-class corvette and the SIGMA?

[Dysta]

Pretty much most of the post-cold war corvettes and light frigates (2000t displacement or below), except the earlier configuration of LCS-1 and 2.

For Russia, they got quite a shopping list of variations, while 056 is the closest thing China have for SIGMA.

In that case, I need to know more what exactly you need to compare with? Endurance? Firepower? Point Defense? Speed? Cost? Etcetc.

[BradOrbital]

Hi Dysta, thanks for the feedback. It was in general but if I had to pick a couple points, perhaps firepower and endurance/distance. Thanks.

Just thought I'd add: I will go through the CMANO-DB site to compare but was just wondering the communities thoughts.

[Dysta]

Visby's 57mm is a substantial Bofor MK3 gun for a small displacement ship, and it's designed to be anti-missile capable weapon with rather high PoH. Have 4 ASM with quite a distance (100nm) and barely transonic. Speed is also impressive (35kt), and stealthy as well. Endurance for this ship is around 2500nm at cruise speed.

The Buyan-Mod from Russia is pretty much the potential counterpart of Visby because it's also smaller tonnage than most of the frigates. But the gun is a whopping 100mm caliber A-190 for longer range and of course, firepower. However, the FRAG is inferior to the Bofor MK3, and does not have good PoH for intercepting missiles. The backup solution is 2 AK-630 CIWS, which Visby doesn't have for the sake of stealth design. What truly stands out for firepower is the VLS. Not just doubled the quantity to 8, but also can use different kinds of missiles. The Sizzler is subsonic at cruising stage around 180nm, and then release the rocket penetrator reached to almost Mach 3 about 20nm from the target, making it very difficult to stop at terminal stage. Of course, it can load cruise missile for land target as well, unlike Visby only for anti-ship purpose.

What Buyan-Mod lacks of from Visby is speed, only 25kn at the maximum. Endurance is around 1500nm range for cruise speed, which is quite short-legged than stealthier counterpart.

For a same class that's faster than Visby is Skjold, also stealthy and have familiar ASM for 4. But it's has 55kn for Flank, and best for intercepting mission. However, it's also short-legged as Russian Buyan-Mod, and no helicopter pad at all.

If for higher endurance for the same tonnage as Visby, the soon-commissioned Saar 72 can lasts 3000nm for cruise speed. But it's as slow as Buyan-Mod, and as underpowered as Visby because it only got 4 Harpoons. However, it got 8 VLS for Anti-air and torpedo tubes for ASM, as well as 76mm gun for low-level land strike. A rather average balance compare to the previous two. The higher endurance but slightly bigger ship is Saar 5, but it's almost like a Frigate for doubled the tonnage than Visby.

Maybe there are some classes I missed to compare them, but you can find more at DB3000, or Wikipedia have the equivalent counterparts listed for each ships.

[BradOrbital]

Thanks Dysta, will give this a full read later and will also give a look at the counterparts list you mentioned.