Naval Group cuts steel for second Greek FDI frigate

Naval Group cuts steel for the second FDI HN at its yard in Lorient on 13 July. (Naval Group)

French shipbuilder Naval Group has started construction of the second Frégate de Défense et d'Intervention (FDI) multimission frigate for the Hellenic Navy (HN).

A steel-cutting ceremony for the second FDI HN was held at Naval Group's shipyard in Lorient on 13 July. It follows the start of construction of the first frigate in September 2021.

Naval Group is building three FDI frigates – with an option for a fourth – for the HN under a contract signed in March 2022. The FDI HN is the export version of the five Amiral Ronarc'h-class frigates being built for the French Navy.

Under the terms of the contract, the first two frigates are expected to be delivered in 2025, followed by the third in 2026. To achieve these timeframes, the second and third FDI frigates originally planned for delivery to the French Navy in 2025 are being completed as the first two FDI HN ships.

The full armament suite of the FDI HN frigates includes 32 MBDA Aster 30 Block 1 surface-to-air missiles, eight MBDA Exocet MM40 B3C anti-ship missiles, a Raytheon Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) inner-layer missile system, a Leonardo 76/62 Super Rapid gun, two 20 mm Nexter Narwhal remote weapon systems, four torpedo tubes for MU90 torpedoes, and Naval Group CANTO torpedo countermeasures.

Thales is providing the sensor suite, which includes the Sea Fire active electronically scanned array multifunction radar, the Kingklip Mk 2 hull-mounted sonar, and Captas-4 Compact low-frequency active/passive variable depth sonar. These will be integrated with Naval Group's SETIS combat management system.