Spanish F-110 frigate passes critical design review milestone

An artist's rendering of the F-110 frigate design. (Navantia)

Navantia has successfully completed the critical design review (CDR) for the Spanish Navy's new F-110 frigate programme.

Announcing the milestone on 24 June, Navantia said this signified that the F-110 design met all the capability requirements requested by the Spanish Ministry of Defence (MoD) and paved the way for the shipbuilder to ramp up production activities at its yard in Ferrol.

Navantia will build five multi-purpose F-110 frigates for the Spanish Navy under a EUR4.31 billion (USD4.83 billion) contract awarded on 23 April 2019.

Steel for first-of-class Ramón de Bonifaz (F-111) was cut on 6 April 2022, and under current planning the lead ship is expected to be launched in 2025 and handed over in 2026. Delivery of all five ships is expected to be completed by 2032.

The CDR process, which began in December 2021 and concluded on 23 June, involved around 30 technical sessions and two plenary sessions, which were held at Navantia's shipyard in Ferrol on 21 and 22 June. The plenary sessions were attended by representatives of the MoD, the Spanish Navy, and Navantia, in addition to the US Navy, and several suppliers including Lockheed Martin, Indra, Thales, Ingeteam, and Ferri.

According to Navantia, the level of technical maturity of the F-110 design is thehighest ever reached in one of its programmes.