Gowind 3100 / Maharaja Lela-class frigate

Posted by: Andrei Dcs

The Maharaja Lela-class frigate, also known as Gowind 3100 is a stealth frigate developed by Naval Group for the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN).

Based on the French Gowind design, the Maharaja Lela is the largest member of the Gowind family of surface combatants.

The Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) ordered a total of six Maharaja Lela frigates that are locally built by Boustead Heavy Industries Corporation (BHIC).

Gowind series of warships

Gowind is a series of warships designed by the French shipbuilder Naval Group (formerly known as DCNS).

The Gowind family of surface combatants includes the Gowind 3100 light frigate, the Gowind 2500 corvette and the Gowind 1000 offshore patrol vessel (OPV).

Gowind 2500 is the standard ship of the Gowind design, being classified as a corvette.

Like its name suggests, Gowind 2500 has a displacement of 2,500 tones and a lenght of 102 m (334 ft 8 in).

Gowind 3100 is a larger variant of the Gowind 2500, having a displacement of 3,100 tones and a total lenght of 111 m (364 ft 2 in).

Gowind 3100 was chosen by Malaysia and is locally known as the Maharaja Lela-class frigate.

By dimensions, Gowind 3100 can be classified as a light frigate or a heavy corvette.

Progam cost and cost-per-unit of the Gowind 3100 (Maharaja Lela-class frigate)

The total cost of the Maharaja Lela (Gowind 3100) frigates program was estimated in 2011 at a total of 9 billion (2011) Malaysian ringgit (RM) (approx. $2.25 billion) for all the six ships while also including the transfer of technology (ToT) costs.

This means about 1.5 billion (2011) RM per unit, or $375 million per ship, including the transfer of technology costs.

As of 2020, from the total of six Maharaja Lela frigates planned, one is completed, while the rest of five are still in the building phase.

Maharaja Lela (Gowind 3100) weight and dimensions

Maharaja Lela (Gowind 3100) has a total displacement of 3,100 tones, being the heaviest variant of the Gowind-design.

It has an overall length of 111 m (364 ft), while the waterline lenght is 105 m (344 ft).

The beam of the Gowind 3100 measures 16 m (52 ft) on the main deck, and 14.2 m (47 ft) on the waterline.

The draught is 3.85 m (12.6 ft).

Maharaja Lela (Gowind 3100) propulsion system

The Gowind 3100 uses the COmbined Diesel And Diesel (CODAD) type of propulsion system, having four MTU 20V 1163 M94 marine diesel engines each rated at 7,400 kW (9,925 shp).

The total output of the four MTU 20V 1163 M94 engines is 29,600 kW (39,694 shp).

Speed and operational range of the Gowind 3100 (Maharaja Lela) frigate

Gowind 3100 frigate can reach a maximum speed of 28 knots (52 km/h; 32 mph) and has a total operational range of 5,000 nautical miles (9,300 km; 5,800 miles) at a constant speed of 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph).

Complement of the Gowind 3100 (Maharaja Lela) frigates

The complement of the Maharaja Lela frigates consists of 138 persons.

Sensors and processing systems used by the Gowind 3100 (Maharaja Lela) warships

Maharaja Lela is equiped with state-of-the-art sensors and processing systems including the Thales SMART-S Mk2 search radar.

Thales SMART-S Mk2 is a naval medium to long-range air and surface passive electronically scanned array (PESA) 3D radar, working in S-band.

SMART-S means Signaal Multibeam Acquisition Radar for Tracking, S band.

The SMART-S Mk2 was designed by Thales Nederland, a subsidiary of the French multinational company Thales Group.

The Thales SMART-S Mk2 is a high-performance radar, very successful on the export market.

The system has two operating modes: medium range and long range.

On the medium range mode it detects targets up to 150 km (81 nautical miles) at 27 RPM.

On the long range mode it can detect targets up to 250 km (130 nautical miles) at 13.5 RPM.

The combat system installed on the Malaysian Gowind 3100 frigates is the DCNS SETIS, a combat system with an open architecture that can integrate a large range of equipment including American weapons.

Maharaja Lela frigates are also equipped with Rheinmetall TMX/EO Mk2 fire control radars and Rheinmetall TMEO Mk2 electro-optical tracking system.

The TMX/EO Mk2 fire control radars can track air, surface and fixed ground targets with extreme precision.

As anti-submarine warfare sensors, Gowind 3100 uses the Thales CAPTAS-2 ASW suite including a hull sonar and also a towed array sonar.

Electronic warfare systems and decoys installed on the Maharaja Lela (Gowind 3100) units

Like any other modern warships, the new frigates of the Royal Malaysian Navy will be equiped with electronic warfare systems and decoys.

These systems include the Thales Vigile ESM and the Wallop/Esterline Super Barricade decoy system.

Armament of the Gowind 3100 (Maharaja Lela) surface combatants

The Maharaja Lela-class frigates are each armed with a 57 mm Bofors L/70 naval gun and two 30 mm DS30M Mark 2 is a ship-protection gun systems.

For surface-to-air warface, the Malaysian Gowind 3100 light frigates will be equiped with the Sylver A50 vertical launch system (VLS) armed with 16 ML Mica surface to air missiles.

With the Sylver VLS A50, Malaysia can also use the short-to-medium range Aster-15 and the long-range Aster-30 anti-aircraft and anti-missile interceptors.

The anti-ship capabilities consist of eight Naval Strike Missile (NSM) anti-ship missiles.

Naval Strike Missile is an advanced anti-ship cruise missile with stealth features developed by the Norwegian company Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace (KDA).

The future Malaysian frigates will be also armed with two triple J+S torpedo launchers.

Aviation facilities aboard the Gowind 3100 ships

Maharaja Lela warships have a stern hangar and a helicopter landing platform and can host a medium helicopter weighing up to 10 tons as well as various types of UAVs.