Good Q. Perhaps the strategy is for increasing the numbers plus the fact that F22P will be used for the long range patrol etc and the Milgem for coastal defence and patrols. Just my opinion.
Looks good, But a question arise how much difference there is between F-22P and MILGEM Corvettes in term of armaments?
Well, I don't know the functions and capabilities of F-22P but on Ada-class corvettes, the main declared functions of the ship can be found anywhere on web. But what I wrote below are what makes Ada-class unique, as a 2400 tonnes corvette. These functions are:
- EEZ surveillance and monitoring (limited maneuvering cability at sea state 6 and full at sea state 5 makes it an agile ship compared to its size as a corvette, first two ships of the class namely F-511 and F-512 have both training and combat deployment experiences in the Horn of Africa Indian Ocean which is very close to Pakistani waters)
- Electronic Warfare (Aselsan Ares 2N provides expanded electronic support measures to ship including long range low probability of intercept track, capability to track low signature radars and as well as high resistance against enemy EW)
- Lastly, Anti-Submarine Warfare (Ada-class corvettes are officially designated as ASW & Patrol vessels. The third and fourth ships of the class, unlike their predecessors who are armed with Sea Sentor SSTD, these ships and all the future variants including PN's are armed with Aselsan's Hızır torpedo defense system with an open architecture design, if there are demands PN's Ada-class ships can also be armed with hard-kill Tork anti-torpedo torpedoes which are in service in our submarine fleet)
The ship uses Netherland's Thales' SMART-S Mark II as its main radar system, a 3D PESA search radar produced under license by Aselsan so PN won't have problems to acquire it I suppose.
As a result, we can say that in terms of armaments and sensors, Ada-class corvettes make the front with its ASW, EW and patrol capabilities when compared to ships of similar class. There is one setback however which is air defense. Since the ship has no main role in providing air defense coverage it only armed with RIM-116 RAM missiles as a close in weapons platform, but this can easily be solved by re-designing the ship since the project already covers larger ships with additional air defense capabilities so engineering won't be an issue.