By
Stelios Kanavakis
German Navy’s (Deutsche Marine) first F125 frigate has begun sea
trials on 6 April. The “Baden-Württemberg” has sailed
from the shipyard in Hamburg to Cuxhaven. With a crew of 60 men and
women, the vessel will assume a series of tests for the systems, subsystems
and weapons of the platform. |
The F125-class
frigates are built by ARGE F125 consortium, lead by ThyssenKrupp Marine
Systems and supplemented by Blohm + Voss, Nordsweerke and Lurssen Werft.
A total of four vessels will be built for the German Navy. The “Baden-Württemberg”
is scheduled for delivery in 2016 and the last one in 2019.
Although the F125-class ships are frigates their displacement is much
larger, closer to that of a destroyer, as it reaches 7,200 tonnes. They
are built to replace the eight Bremen-class frigates, which entered
service in the ‘80s, and carry out a wide range of missions, both
combat and humanitarian.
Their crew is comprised on average of 150 people, although that can
change depending on the mission. The vessels’ main weapons are
the Oto Melara 127/64 LW Alleggerito gun, 2 x remote-controlled 27 mm
Rheinmetall MLG27 cannons, 5 x HITROLE naval turrets with 12.7 mm heavy
machine guns, 8 x Boeing RGM-84 Harpoon missiles, 2 x Raytheon RIM-116
RAM CIWS systems and a series of non-lethal weapons. |