The Budget Committee of the German Bundestag (Parliament) has given ‚green light‘ for the procurement of two additional Type F126 frigates for the German Navy. The new-construction project is now worth some €3.1 billion, according to an announcement from the Committee’s meeting on 12 June. The German Navy plans to procure six ships of the „Niedersachsen“ class that will be fully capable of three-dimensional naval warfare worldwide, with targets engaged underwater, on the water and in the air. Four frigates have already been ordered based on a design from Damen Naval in the Netherlands. The first ship, „Niedersachsen“ (F 227), is planned to be commissioned in 2028, with Saarland (F 228), Bremen (F 229) and Thüringen (F 230) to follow until January 2032.

The F126 frigate project reached a major milestone in early December 2023, with the cutting of the first steel at the Peene shipyard in Wolgast in the State of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. In June 2020, the BAAINBw defence procurement agency awarded the construction contract for four F126 frigates to Damen Naval as head contractor, together with subcontractors Blohm+Voss and Thales. It is the largest shipbuilding project in the history of the German Navy. The approximately 10,550-tonne (full displacement) frigates will be built entirely in Germany at shipyards in Wolgast, Kiel and Hamburg. The steelwork and pre-assembly for the stern will take place at the Peene shipyard in Wolgast, part of the NVL Group. The foreship will be built in Kiel, where it will be assembled with the stern and towed by sea to Blohm+Voss in Hamburg. Final outfitting, commissioning, testing and delivery, as well as outfitting of the on-board systems, will take place at Blohm+Voss in Hamburg.

Stefan Nitschke