New Spanish frigate to be named after former Majorcan admiral.

The Spanish Navy will name one of five F-110 frigates that are to be built by the Navantia state-owned shipbuilding company after the Majorcan admiral, Antonio Barceló. The new ships will all have been delivered by 2031, but in the meantime, Barceló has been recognised on a new coin.

A virtual image of the future F-110 class frigate (Picture source: Navantia)

The Real Casa de la Moneda (the Mint) has produced collectors’ coins dedicated to the history of navigation, and while Barceló doesn’t himself feature, his xebec ship does. There is a scene of an encounter with two Algerian galleys that is a reproduction of a painting by Àngel Cortellini which is in the Naval Museum in Madrid. This scene was during the Bombardment of Algiers in 1783. The coin has a face value of 1.50 euros. Originally a privateer at the service of the crown, Barceló climbed the ranks to admiral due to his great naval successes. But not all the campaigns were successful, as was the case with the Great Siege of Gibraltar by the Spanish and French from 1779 to 1783.

The F110 class are a new class of future Aegis combat system frigates of the Spanish Navy. The project is being developed by the Ministry of Defence and the public company Navantia. The construction of the frigates will begin in 2019 and are scheduled to be delivered between 2025 and 2031.

According to the Navy, the new frigates must have an operative life of 40 years, be able to incorporate embarkable groups, as well as be able to operate with unmanned vehicles, both aerial, surface and under surface. Regarding the desired characteristics, the Navy requests a sustained speed of more than 35 knots. The F110 will have a multipurpose space for different mission profiles, 240 days of operation and 18 months of high availability.

The future F-110 frigate will be a fundamental technological step in the Platform and Combat Systems, as well as the starting point for the incorporation of Industry 4.0 technologies, which will improve the systems management throughout their entire life cycle.

Navantia started in 1996 the design of the frigate F-100. 22 years later and with 13 ships of this family built, with different versions and for several countries, the innovative and new frigate F110 aims to maintain Navantia’s world leadership position as a designer and builder of frigates and their further life cycle support.