France to receive 3 more FREMM frigates

Hervé Morin, Minister of Defense, today conducted in Lorient the ceremonial cutting of the first steel for Normandy, the French navy’s second FREMM multimission frigate. On this occasion he made public the recent order for three additional FREMM ships. The FREMM program about fifty million man-hours of work to several thousand French workers until 2022. On September 30, 2009 the Organization for Joint Cooperation in Armaments (Occar), acting on behalf of the French defence procurement agency, DGA, awarded DCNS an order for one FREMM frigate in Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) configuration, and two other ships in air-defence configuration (FREDA). This latest order brings to eleven the number of FREMM frigates ordered for the French navy, the first eight having been ordered in November 2005. All ships of this class will be named after French provinces. The first FREMM, Aquitaine, will be delivered in 2012. This Franco-Italian program provides for the delivery of 21 frigates for both countries. The multimission frigates will eventually constitute the backbone of the surface fleet in the various segments of naval warfare (anti-submarine, anti-aircraft, anti-ship and asymmetrical). Displacing 6,000 tons and 142 meters long, these ships will be capable of reaching a top speed of 27 knots, and will be crewed by only 108 officers and ratings. They will be heavily armed, with MM-40 Exocet anti-ship missiles, Aster air-defence missiles and MU-90 torpedoes. The French navy’s first nine frigates, configured for ASW operations, will in addition have a deep strike role thanks to the future naval cruise missile due to enter service in 2014.