In the presence of French Defense Minister Florence Parly, the steel for the first unit at the Lorient site was cut on October 24, 2019. The FDI are intended to replace the five La Fayette-type frigates that entered service between 1996 and 2001.
More compact than the multi-function frigates FREMM (6,000 tons), the FDI are intended to round out the fleet and enable use of lighter units - while remaining able to represent naval warfare in all three dimensions. The current French Navy concept envisages a total of fifteen frigates. The defense budget (loi de programmation militaire 2019 – 2025) earmarks 3.8 billion euros for FDI.
Key figures
| displacement | 4,500 tons |
| Length | 121.6 meters |
| Width | 17.7 meters |
| Speed, max. | 27 knots |
| autonomy | 45 days |
| accommodation | 125 + 28 embarkations |
| sensors | · SeaFire radar · KingKlip Mk2 hull sonar · Captas-4 Compact towed sonar |
| arming | · Exocet MM40 Block3C ship-to-ship missile · Aster 15/30 surface-to-air missile · Artillery o 76mm o 20mm (two guns) · MU90 Torpedos Helicopter: Caiman (NH90) · UAVs · two emergency boats |
As the first digitized French combat ship, it has a digital architecture (small detail: 300 kilometers of cables are installed) that was developed specifically to deal with cyber threats.
plans
As the French Defense Minister announced during the ceremony, the first unit will be christened “Amiral Ronarc'h” (Pierre-Alexis Ronarc'h, 1919-1920 inspector of the French Navy), building number 2, the “Admiral Louzeau”. of the recently deceased Inspector of the French Navy and the remaining three FDIs will be named after the French Admirals Castex, Nomy and Cabanier. With the exception of Admiral Raoul Castex, all FDIs are named after former naval chiefs.
The “Admiral Ronarc'h” is scheduled to be delivered to the French Navy at the end of 2023 and will be commissioned in 2025. The four sister ships will then arrive every 18 months. According to today's reading, the fifth FDI, “Amiral Cabanier”, should be ready for use in 2030.
Die FDI füllen auch aus industriepolitischer Sicht eine Lücke. Zwischen Korvetten (Gowind) und den größeren Fregatten (FREMM) ergänzen die FDI oder ‚Belharra‘ die Produktpalette von Naval Group. Und eröffnet Exportmöglichkeiten im Segment der 4.000-5.000-Tonnen-Schiffe. Modular konzipiert, können sie den Bedürfnissen (und dem Geldbeutel) einer interessierten Marine angepasst werden. Von Naval Group heißt es, daß man rund dreißig Einheiten zu einem Stückpreis von mit rund 750 Millionen Euro an ausländische Marinen vermarkten möchte. Dem Rechnung tragend, hat sich Naval Group aufgestellt. Am Standort Lorient hat die in Paris ansässige Werft im Zeitraum 2018-19 27 Millionen Euro in technologische Erneuerungen zur Qualitäts-, Terminkontrolle sowie zur Verbesserung der Fertigung und von Sicherheitsstandards investiert.
The ceremony was attended by delegations from Greece (including the Inspector of the Hellenic Navy, Vice Admiral Nikolaos Tsounis) and Romania. Individual French magazines report the participation of the State Secretary in the Romanian Ministry of Defense.
On October 10, the Greek Defense Minister signed a Letter of Intent for the acquisition of two frigates FDI (also known as Belharra) (ESUT reportedin advance). Romania chose Naval Group's Gowind design in July 2019. Due to a complaint from a competitor (Damen, Netherlands), the award has not yet been completed (ESUT reported).
Hans Uwe Mergener
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