Article: The move towards corvettes and frigates: in defence, as in life, fashions change. In the world's navies the fashion some 20 to 30 years ago leaned toward small, high-speed vessels with surface-to-surface missiles--these were known as fast attack craft. Operational experience has since driven more recent requirements towards larger ships of corvette or even frigate size.(Market Report)

The distinction between corvettes and frigates is extremely blurred and is not helped by references to 'light frigates'. Parameters of length and displacement help definition but are not absolutes; in two of the world's major reference works, Jane's Fighting Ships and the US Naval Institute's Combat Fleets of the World, the corvette tends to be a vessel between 55 and 85 metres with a 1300 to 5000-tonne displacement. The frigate is seen as between 86 and 140 metres in length with a displacement of between 1300 to 5000 tonnes. But these are not hard and fast rules; in corvettes the Indonesian Sigma class being built by Royal Schelde are 90 metres long and have a ...

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