The first defense and intervention frigate (FDI) commanded by the Directorate General of Armaments (DGA) and intended for the French Navy, was launched today in Lorient. Named Amiral Ronarc’h, this first FDI will be delivered in 2024.
Monday, November 7, the first frigate of the FDI series, Admiral Ronarc’h, was launched on the Naval Group site in Lorient, in the presence of Sébastien Lecornu, Minister for the Armed Forces, Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos, Minister of Defense of the Hellenic Republic, and senior
authorities of the Ministry of the Armed Forces, in particular Emmanuel Chiva, General Delegate for
Armaments, Thierry Carlier, General Armaments Engineer and Deputy Director General of the DGA, and François Moreau, Wing Vice-Admiral and Major General of the Navy.
Pierre Éric Pommellet, Chairman and CEO of Naval Group declared: “We are proud to be present here in Lorient today to celebrate this important milestone for Admiral Ronarc’h, first of the FDI series, the new generation of first rank frigates of the Navy. The launching of a warship is also an opportunity to remember that the tool French industrialist is at the service of our armed forces, engaged in the war economy. Of the 2025, the Naval Group site in Lorient will produce up to two boats per year. Today we also celebrate the future of the FDI program with the presence of Minister Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos, an opportunity to recall the importance of military and industrial cooperation in Europe, the FDI already associating many Greek industrialists in the realization of the program for Greece”.
FDI’s first sea trials will begin in 2023 for delivery in 2024. Delivery of the four other ships in the FDI series will last until the end of the decade. During this period, Naval Group will also produce three FDIs for Greece, a fourth being currently provided as an option.
The Naval Group industrial site in Lorient has, thanks to the investments of the latter
years, of modern industrial infrastructures, which make it possible to meet the challenges
techniques and technologies in the design and serial construction of ships military. Thanks to a new high-performance industrial organization that optimizes lead times construction, Naval Group will be able to accelerate its production and thus produce up to two boats per year on its Lorient site from 2025.
Many skills are mobilized by the FDI program. Production jobs in particular require specific and rare skills, which result from long years of experience in the trades of military shipbuilding: carpenter-sheet metal worker, trainer, hull welder or pipefitter, among others.
To ensure the sustainability of these cutting-edge skills at the service of naval programs,
Naval Group promotes the recruitment of young talent. Naval Group recruits more than 500
apprentices and more than 1,500 new employees this year.
The realization of the FDI makes it possible to support the employment of the entire construction industrial chain in France, from the Naval Group site in Lorient as well as from the entire Lorient basin. At Naval Group, more than 1,200 people and more than 400 subcontractors work on time complete on the program. The FDI program associates many French partners and Greeks, foremost among which are Thales and MBDA.
The first French frigates natively protected against the Cyber threat, with a redundant IT architecture around two Data Centers which host, in a virtualized way, a large part of the computer applications of the ship.
In terms of operational innovation, the FDI are inaugurating the concept of a gateway dedicated to the fight against the asymmetric threat. This system will allow the coordination and conduct of the fight against close, small air and surface threats, including trapped boats.
Heavily armed (Exocet MM40 anti-ship missiles, ASTER anti-aircraft missiles, anti-submarine torpedoes marines MU90, artillery), the IDF can embark a heavy helicopter (class 10t, such as the NH90) or the future Guépard Marine and an aerial drone (up to 700kg), but also put implementation of the special forces with two boats for commandos. They are equipped with Sea Fire radar with four fixed panels, of new generation, developed by Thales, which confers, associated with the missile implementation system, area defense capabilities.
Technical characteristics
Displacement: class 4,500 tonnes
Length: 122 meters
Width: 18 meters
Speed: 27 knots
Autonomy: 45 days
Accommodation capacity: crew of 125 people + 28 passengers
