RHEINLAND-PFALZ Will be Delivered to User Spring 2020
On 24 May, the fourth and final frigate in the F125 class for the German Navy was christened RHEINLAND-PFALZ at the thyssenkrupp Marine Systems plant in Hamburg. It is scheduled to be handed over to the German defence procurement agency BAAINBw in spring 2020.
“With state-of-the-art technology and a multiple-crew strategy, the F125 sets new standards in naval shipbuilding. It is designed to meet the requirements of our navy in current and future missions, such as fighting piracy or monitoring movements of refugees in the Mediterranean. Following today’s christening ceremony, the 125-class frigate family is now complete,” Dr. Rolf Wirtz, the company’s CEO, explained.
The ARGE F125 consortium, which was awarded the €2 billion contract to build four F125-class ships for the German Navy in 2007, comprises thyssenkrupp Marine Systems as the lead company and Fr. Lürssen Werft in Bremen. The pre-fitted bow sections are manufactured by Lürssen, while construction of the stern sections, the joining of the two sections and further fitting out is carried out at Blohm+Voss Shipyards in Hamburg.
The four 125 class frigates will begin the replacement of the German Navy’s eight F122 BREMEN-class frigates and were developed specifically for the navy’s current and future deployment scenarios, including conflict prevention, crisis management and intervention/stabilisation operations in the international arena. The ships are capable of remaining at sea for 24 months and thus represent the first realisation of the intensive use concept, i.e. significantly increased availability in the deployment region. This capability is supported by a smaller crew and a multiple-crew strategy which permits a complete change of crew during deployment.