Bundeswehr receives Sachsen-Anhalt frigate

The Bundesamt für Ausrüstung, Informationstechnik, und Nutzung der Bundeswehr (BAAINBw), Germany’s Federal Office for Bundeswehr Equipment, Information Technology and In-Service Support, received the F125 frigate Sachsen-Anhalt from Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) in Wilhelmshaven on 30 March, the shipyard and BAAINBw announced later the same day.

The ship is the third of four F125 frigates being built by the Arbeitsgemeinschaft (ARGE) F125 working group: a consortium between TKMS and Lürssen Shipyard.

The last F125 frigate, Rheinland-Pfalz, is to be handed over to the BAAINBw later this year, TKMS said in a press release on 30 March.

The ship’s highly complex systems, about 90% of which were developed specifically for the F125, and about 28,000 sensors allow a high level of automation, allowing its crew size to be halved compared to previous frigate classes, according to TKMS.

F125 frigates can remain in an area of operations for up to two years, the shipyard said. The F125 is designed for national and NATO defence missions, international conflict prevention and crisis management, and intervention and stabilisation operations. It can engage sea, land, and aerial targets and embark anti-submarine helicopters.

The frigates are being built under a June 2007 contract. The F125’s prefitted bow sections are built in the Lürssen shipyards in Bremen and Wolgast, while the stern sections are built at the Blohm + Voss yards in Hamburg where the two sections are linked and the frigates are commissioned, tested, and further fitted out.

TKMS gives the speed of the F125 as more than 26 kt, a displacement of approximately 7,200 tonnes, and a regular crew of 126 that can be expanded to up to 190.