Denmark’s SH Defence is pitching its modular Cube System to the Philippine Navy in a bid that could boost the service’s incoming offshore patrol vessels with missile, minelaying, anti-aircraft and anti-submarine capabilities.
“It’ll never be a frigate, but you can get a lot of the capabilities that will give it some extra firepower or self protection,” Peter Liisberg, SH Defence’s Area Sales Director for the Indo-Pacific, highlighted to Naval News on what the the modular mission system could bring to Philippine Navy and against its adversaries at Asia Defense and Security Exposition 2024.
“There is a lot of things that makes a ship multi-role, not just putting a container on the deck full of things,”
The origins of the Cube comes from the operating experiences of the Royal Danish Navy, which has utilized modular mission containers on its patrol vessels and frigates for decades. However, these systems were unstandardized in container size and integration into the vessels, with some installations bolting the mission module onto the deck.
In order to address these standardization issues, the Cube System deploys 20 or 40 foot ISO containers and a twist and lock system that secures the mission modules. The Cube System’s containers can also be moved from position to position, leading to a number of configurations and capabilities that can be deployed by the vessel. While SH Defence is responsible for this infrastructure, it is working with other companies, such as Thales, GeoSpectrum Technologies, and Israeli Aerospace Industries, to deliver the sensing and kinetic mission modules.
“The Philippine Navy are acquiring these six new OPVs built by Hyundai, and according to Hyundai it’s a multi-role platform, which it’s not. Because if it’s a multi-role platform, you would be able to easily swap missions and putting a container on the aft deck is not making it multi-role,” said Liisberg. SH Defence has identified three configurations on the top, flight, and quarter decks for the Cube System onboard the Philippine Navy’s incoming HDP-2200 offshore patrol vessels. These configurations could put two mission modules on the top deck, located roughly amidship, three to seven on the flight deck, and seven within the quarter deck. Liisberg stressed that the vessel’s aviation operations wouldn’t be impacted as the Cube System’s installation would be flush with the deck.
“So for smaller platforms like these OPVs, the Cube is a flexible system since you can turn a work horse into a fighting capability quite easily. It’ll never be a frigate, but you can get a lot of the capabilities that will give it some extra firepower or self protection such as decoy systems, counter-unmanned aerial systems, or anti-torpedo systems and the like.”
Among the capabilities highlighted to Naval News by Liisberg was the minelaying module within the offshore patrol vessel’s quarterdeck. Composed of both launching and storage containers, the mission module could theoretically support up to 80 shallow mines or 16 cylinder mines in a full minelayer configuration. SH Defence claimed that with its minelaying system, the Philippines could procure and deploy any type of mines if this option is pursued.
“With this system, all of a sudden you can give smaller platforms a lot of extra mission profiles. That could be disaster relief, that could be deterrence, more offensive capabilities. And basically, it’s only the imagination that sets the limits,” said Liisberg. When asked how the Cube System could help the Philippine Navy in countering threats in the West Philippine Sea, a section of the South China Sea that Manila claims under its exclusive economic zone, Liisberg noted the “deterrence approach” that could be delivered from the various payloads. Some examples included the deployment of loitering munitions, integrated air and missile defense from a Barak missile module, and close-in weapons systems such as the Millennium Gun.
Peter also highlighted that adversaries may have a difficult time identifying what capabilities the Philippine Navy’s OPVs possess as a result of the many mission modules available to the vessel via the Cube System. “Well I’m looking at an OPV, but what is that OPV actually carrying? So it gives a lot of options to play with the ships in the battle space,” said Liisberg.
The company is eyeing Cube System concepts for the Philippine Navy’s Tarlac-class landing platform docks, which could support a number of containers on its flight and well decks. Naval News also understands that the system has been pitched to the Philippine Coast Guard.
