The Bulgarian navy will modernise three of its frigates by 2014, Defence Minister Anyu Angelov said on April 12 2011, as quoted by the Bulgarian news agency BTA.
By the end of 2014, several ships will be decommissioned from the Bulgarian navy, including a submarine and several “missile boats” and mine sweepers, Angelov said. The measures are taken to “improve the technical efficiency of the navy”.
As part of the overhaul, the frigates will be equipped with landing pads, allowing helicopters to land and take off from from the ships’ decks.
I have emphasized the the fact with the landing pads as it is a very important point. Bulgarian Navy has 3 Mil-14 PL Haze A and and 6 AS 565 MB Panther helicopters in service. However currently there is no single Bulgarian warships that has ability to land, house and supply a helicopter.
As we all know the on board helicopters have become a major force multipliers for naval forces. Thus the lack of on board helicopters is a major obstacle for the Bulgarian Navy. This did not hurt till now as most of the operations conducted by Bulgarian navy were in Black Sea and with in the range of the land based helicopters.
But as Bulgaria wishes to take part in NATO operations in further regions such as Operation Unified Protector off Libya, the lack of on board helicopters becomes more obvious. Therefore the project to modify the ships with a landing pad is a right decision. But at what price?
The three warships mentioned by Mr. Angelov must the Wielingen class frigates Bulgaria bought from Belgium in the 2000s. These compact and well armed frigates were designed by and for Belgian Navy. The most important distinction of these class is the lack of helicopter facilities.
There is a Mk 29 Sea Sparrow launcher at Y position and 4 Exocet launcher at X position on this class. Below is a photo of one of the three frigates to be upgraded. F-43 BNS Gordi passing through the Bosphorus. The missile launchers at the stern of the ships can be clearly seen.
If these frigates are going to get heli pads this means that Mk 29 Sea Sparrow launcher must be removed as the stern is the most suitable place for this change. The ships might look like this after the modernization. I have painted a heli pad with a generic naval helicopter landed.
It is very obvious that the Mk 29 is standing just in the middle of the future helicopter pad. It is not very reasonable to scrap the most potent air defense weapon of these ships just the land a helicopter. Therefore I suspect that the Mk 29 launcher will be replaced; may be removed to the position of the Exocet missiles. Another available spot for the Sea Sparrow launcher is the B position to replace the Bofors ASW mortar.
The details of the proposed modernization plans for the Weilingen class frigates is not made public yet. But it is safe to assume that they will be comprehensive.
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