France Orders 3 FREMM Frigates
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On Oct 30/09, the EU’s OCCAR defense procurement agency, which manages the Franco-Italian FREMM project, issues an order to DCNS for 3 more Aquitaine class FREMM frigates on behalf of France’s Navy. The 3 ships will include 2 anti-submarine (ASW/ASM) variants and an air defense (AAW/FREDA) variant. The award was formally announced by French defense minister Hervé Morin during a visit to the Lorient shipyard, where he was attending the keel-laying of France’s 2nd FREMM frigate, the Normandie. Price was not given, but based upon expected budgets this order will involve EUR 1.2 – 1.5 billion ($1.8 – 2.2 billion).
The French Navy has now ordered 11 FREMM friagtes in total: 8 frigates ordered in November 2005, plus these 3. Named French FREMM frigates include the Aquitaine, Normandie, Provence, Bretagne, Auvergne, Languedoc, Alsace and Lorraine. DGA [in French] | DCNS | Defense News | defpro | UPI.
Elsewhere, Italy has ordered 6 frigates and Morocco 1, bringing the total order book to 18. The first French FREMM frigate, the Aquitaine, will be delivered in 2012, with others following every 10 months until 2022. The French program is expected to offer 50 million work hours to French industry until the final French ship’s delivery, but that could expand if export orders come through from countries like Algeria (4-6), Brazil (?), Greece (6), and Saudi Arabia (3).
