French Defence and Intervention Frigates Steel Cut in October 2019

The first steel cut for the French Navy’s defence and intervention frigates (FDI), the fully digital warships that will be among the most modern anywhere in the world, will take place in October this year.

Naval Group teams are in the process of launching the program for the FDIs that will be delivered from 2023 onward, a Naval Group release said on the occasion of the completion of the Normandie frigate which marks the completion of the FREMM shipbuilding program.

The next program will be the construction of two multi-mission frigates with renewed anti-air defence capacities, the Alsace and the Lorraine, which will begin in Lorient. They will be delivered in 2021 and 2022 respectively, the release said.

The company was awarded a contract to build five FDI frigates for the French Navy in 2017. The FDI design features an inverted bow design with a length of 122 meters and a displacement of 4,250 tons.

In April 2019, Florence Parly, Minister of Armed Forces of France announced that the first SeaFire AESA radar system, meant for the digital frigate, had been installed at the shore integration facility in Southern France ahead of schedule.