On June 3, 2024, the German shipbuilding company Peene Werft of the NVL Group shipbuilding association in Wolgast hosted the official laying ceremony for the German fleet of the lead frigate F 227 Niedersachsen of the new project 126 (F126) of the six planned for construction. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius attended the groundbreaking ceremony. The ceremony of the first steel cutting for the lead ship was held there on December 5, 2023.
The official laying ceremony at the German shipbuilding company Peene Werft of the NVL Group shipbuilding association for the German fleet of the lead frigate F 227 Niedersachsen of the new project 126 (F126). Volgast, 06/03/2024 (c) German Ministry of Defense
The construction of Project 126 frigates is carried out under the head role of the international (headquartered in the Netherlands) shipbuilding association Damen Shipyards Group, which in June 2020 signed a contract with the German Federal defense procurement agency Bundesamt fur Ausrüstung, Informationstechnik und Nutzung der Bundeswehr (BAAINBw) for the technical design and construction of four large frigates for the German Navy. the project. At the time of signing the contract, these frigates were designated as "multipurpose warships" of the Mehrzweckkampfschiff 180 (MKS 180) project and were officially redesignated as frigates of Project 126 (F126) from January 1, 2021. The contract value was 4.6 billion euros (with additions - 5.48 billion euros) and the contract provided for the commissioning of four ships in the period from 2027 to 2031. The deadline for the readiness of the lead frigate is now called 2028.
The four first frigates ordered were named F 227 Niedersachsen, F 228 Saarland, F 229 Bremen and F 230 Thuringen. The option to the contract provided for the possibility of building two more ships after 2032. In April 2024, it was announced that the German government had decided to transfer this option into a firm contract, for which another 3 billion euros would be allocated.
A consortium led by Damen Shipyards Group won the BAAINBw tender for the construction of ships of the MKS 180 (F126) project in January 2020, after several years of competition with German shipbuilding companies. The consortium headed by Damen Shipyards Group for the design and construction of these frigates also includes the German shipbuilding group NVL Group (the military division of the Fr. Lürssen Werft group) and the Thales group (actually its Dutch division Thales Nederland). Although Damen acts as the general contractor, however, the actual construction of the project 126 ships will be carried out at two shipbuilding enterprises in Germany. The "stern halves" of the frigate hulls are being built at the Peene Werft shipbuilding enterprise of the NVL Group in Wolgast (the former main shipyard of the GDR military shipbuilding), and the "bow halves" of the hulls will be built on a subcontracted basis in Kiel at the German Naval Yards Kiel GmbH shipyard (the former Kieler Howaldtswerke AG shipyard), owned by an international financial and industrial holding Privinvest. Then both parts of the hulls will be docked in Kiel, after which the hulls will be towed to Hamburg to the former Blohm + Voss BV & Co. KG shipyard (owned by Lürssen / NVL Group since 2016), where the ships will be completed and tested. Thales Nederland will act as the main supplier of electronic weapons for ships and a system integrator, while it is stated that 70% of the cost of the work will be carried out by the German branches of Thales in Kiel and Wilhelmshaven. In general, according to Damen declarations, 80% of the total cost of frigates will be produced in Germany.
The frigates of project 126 themselves are large (full displacement up to 11 thousand tons, length 167 m) modular multipurpose ships designed mainly for "expeditionary" operations. Ironically, the project grew out of the new generation corvette program of the K131 project, launched by the German Navy in 2008. During the study, the customer's requirements and, accordingly, the ship's dimensions constantly grew, and in 2011 the K131 corvette was renamed Mehrzweckkampfschiff 180. The growth of the "hotelok" of the German fleet continued after that, and as a result, by 2018, the preliminary design of the MKS 180 had reached its current size, which makes the frigates of project 126 the largest surface warships of the German navy after 1945 (and the price rose to more than 1 billion euros per ship).
Now the project 126 frigate should be equipped for a wide range of tasks - from missile defense to "expeditionary" and anti-piracy - for which, in particular, it is planned to place 84 additional personnel on the ship, including special forces and marines, the deployment of high-speed motorboats, the deployment of a modular hospital, etc. It also provides for the placement of PLO modules (including towed gas), mine action, underwater operations (with appropriate underwater equipment), radio intelligence, etc., and the possibility of transporting 20-foot containers. However, in fact, the crabs will have some specialization - it is reported that the 2020 contract with Damen was signed for two ships with PLO modules and two ships with "patrol" modules.
The official laying ceremony at the German shipbuilding company Peene Werft of the NVL Group shipbuilding association for the German fleet of the lead frigate F 227 Niedersachsen of the new project 126 (F126). Volgast, 06/03/2024 (c) Damen Shipyards Group
Image of the promising German frigate Project 126 (F126) (c) German Ministry of Defense and www.navalanalyses.com
