DCNS has handed over the multi-mission frigate Mohammed VI to the Royal Moroccan Navy on time, on budget and with performance as promised.
The handover ceremony was held in Brest in the presence of His Excellency Prince Moulay Rachid El Alaoui, brother of the King of Morocco, Jean-Yves Le Drian, the French Minister of Defence and Patrick Boissier, Chairman & CEO of DCNS.
The Mohammed VI, named in honour of the Moroccan sovereign, is the first vessel from the Group’s FREMM range of multimission frigates to be acquired by an international customer. Also, this is the second vessel of this type designed and built by DCNS in a production run of 12 ships for the French and Moroccan Navies.
Thanks to their versatility and manoeuvrability, FREMM frigates meet the operational needs of navies all over the world. They are designed to deal with all types of air, surface, subsurface and land-based threats, and are amongst the most technologically advanced and competitively priced on the world market.
The agreement between Morocco and France was for a FREMM multimission frigate optimised for anti-submarine warfare. The ‘first-cut’ ceremony took place on 12 December 2008 and construction took a total of five years. The ship was floated out of its construction dock on 14 September 2011. The sea trials undertaken since April this year have confirmed that the Mohammed VI fully satisfies the target levels of performance.
FREMM, a major programme for DCNS and partners
The French FREMM programme calls for twelve ships – eleven for the French Navy and one for the Royal Moroccan Navy. DCNS delivered the Aquitaine, the first FREMM multimission frigate, to the French Navy in November 2012. The second-of-type was delivered to the Royal Moroccan Navy, 30 January 2014, in compliance with the contractual provisions and has been named Mohammed VI.
Five FREMM frigates are currently under construction at the Group’s Lorient shipyard:
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DCNS, January 31, 2014