The third of a total of four 125 class frigates for the German Navy has been laid down at the Hamburg site of ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems, a company of ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions.
The delivery to the German Navy is scheduled for November 2016. The other frigates are being built one after the other, with the last of the four ships due for delivery in 2019. The contract is worth around $2bn in total.
The four 125 class frigates will replace the German Navy’s eight 122 Bremen class frigates. The ships were developed specially for current and future mission scenarios.
In addition to the traditional tasks of national and alliance defense, the 125 class frigates are designed for conflict prevention, crisis management as well as international intervention and stabilization missions.
The ships are capable of remaining at sea for 24 months and will be the first to implement the intensive use principle, i.e. significantly enhanced availability in the area of operation.
This capability is supported by a reduced crew size and a two-crew strategy under which the crew can be swapped out on location.
[mappress] June 10, 2014