The F123 ''Brandenburg'' class is a class of

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

frigate. They were ordered by the

German Navy The German Navy (, ) is the navy of Germany and part of the unified '' Bundeswehr'' (Federal Defense), the German Armed Forces. The German Navy was originally known as the ''Bundesmarine'' (Federal Navy) from 1956 to 1995, when ''Deutsche Mar ...

in June 1989 and completed and commissioned between 1994 and 1996, replacing the s. The ships primarily carry out anti-submarine warfare (ASW), but they also contribute to local

anti-aircraft Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...

defenses, the tactical command of squadrons, and surface-to-surface warfare operations. Together with the F124 ''Sachsen'' class frigates, they are the mainstay of the German surface fleet.

Project history

Despite having undergone a limited modernisation, the four Hamburg-class destroyers intended for escort duties in the North Sea and North Atlantic were technologically obsolete by the 1980s, lacking assets such as an on-board helicopter capable of searching for submarines and still relying on steam turbines and boilers for propulsion. A replacement was considered overdue.

Blohm + Voss Blohm is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Hans Blohm C.M. (born 1927), photographer and author * Hermann Blohm (1848–1930), German businessman and co-founder of German company Blohm+Voss * Linn Blohm (born 1992), Swedish hand ...

was contracted to develop and build the ships to a clean-sheet design in 1989. Not taken up was the option of ordering a variant of the Bremen-class modified with new systems, as offered by

Bremer Vulkan Bremer Vulkan AG was a prominent German shipbuilding company located at the Weser river in Bremen-Vegesack. It was founded in 1893 and closed in 1997 because of financial problems and mismanagement. All together Bremer Vulkan built about 1100 ...

, the lead contractor for that class of ships. Blohm + Voss and Bremer Vulkan had previously cooperated on a new F123 design to offer to the German Navy. At the time Vulkan director Friedrich Hennemann felt that Blohm + Voss had afterwards illegitimately presented the jointly developed design as their own. The lead ship, ''Brandenburg'' was laid down in Hamburg in February 1992 and commissioned in October 1994. The last ship, ''Mecklenburg-Vorpommern'' was commissioned in December 1996.

Design

General characteristics and machinery

The frigates are long, have a maximum draught of and a beam of . A

CODOG Combined diesel or gas (CODOG) is a type of propulsion system for ships that need a maximum speed that is considerably faster than their cruise speed, particularly warships like modern frigates or corvettes. For every propeller shaft there is ...

propulsion system is used, combining two MTU diesel engines and two

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...

LM2500 The General Electric LM2500 is an industrial and marine gas turbine produced by GE Aviation. The LM2500 is a derivative of the General Electric CF6 aircraft engine. As of 2004, the U.S. Navy and at least 29 other navies had used a total of mor ...

gas turbines for a total installed power of 38 MW. The ship achieves a maximum speed of more than . Signature reduction measures influenced the design, reducing the ships radar signature to a tenth of that of the

Bremen-class frigate The eight F122 ''Bremen''-class frigates of the German Navy was a series of frigates commissioned between 1982 and 1990. The design was based on the proven and robust Dutch but used a different propulsion system and hangar lay-out. The ship ...

Armament

The primary anti-submarine weapons are

Mark 46 torpedo The Mark 46 torpedo is the backbone of the United States Navy's lightweight anti-submarine warfare torpedo inventory and is the NATO standard. These aerial torpedoes are designed to attack high-performance submarines. In 1989, an improvement p ...

es carried by the Sea Lynx helicopters stationed on board of the frigates. The torpedoes can also be launched from two twin launchers located behind the ships' funnels. For defense against anti-ship missiles and aircraft, two

Mark 41 vertical launching system The Mark 41 Vertical Launching System (Mk 41 VLS) is a shipborne missile canister launching system which provides a rapid-fire launch capability against hostile threats. The Vertical Launch System (VLS) concept was derived from work on the Aegis Co ...

modules with 8 cells each, 16 in total are located in front of the bridge. They can accommodate 16 NATO Sea Sparrow missiles or up to 64 of the more modern Sea Sparrow-derived

ESSM The RIM-162 Evolved SeaSparrow Missile (ESSM) is a development of the RIM-7 Sea Sparrow missile used to protect ships from attacking missiles and aircraft. ESSM is designed to counter supersonic maneuvering anti-ship missiles. ESSM also has the ab ...

with a range of more than 50 km. Four ESSM can be packaged in a single cell. Space is reserved for two additional Mk 41 modules, however it has not been utilised. Two Mark 49

rolling airframe missile The RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) is a small, lightweight, infrared homing surface-to-air missile in use by the German, Japanese, Greek, Turkish, South Korean, Saudi Arabian, Egyptian, Mexican, UAE, and U.S. Navies. It was orig ...

(RAM) launchers with 21 missiles each are dedicated to short range air defence against missiles. They are located in the ships' fore and aft. Two quadruple launchers for 8

Harpoon A harpoon is a long spear-like instrument and tool used in fishing, whaling, sealing, and other marine hunting to catch and injure large fish or marine mammals such as seals and whales. It accomplishes this task by impaling the target animal ...

anti-ship missiles are located between main mast and funnels. They replaced two double launchers for 4 MM38 Exocet missiles. An

OTO Melara 76 mm The OTO Melara 76 mm gun is a naval gun built and designed by the Italian defence company OTO Melara. It is based on the OTO Melara 76/62C and evolved toward 76/62 SR and 76/62 Strales. The system is compact enough to be installed on rel ...

compact naval gun is located in front of the frontal RAM launcher. The ships also feature two MLG27 autocannons which replaced the previous Rh-202, as well as four machine guns.

Sensors and countermeasures

The radar suite consists of

Thales Nederland Thales Nederland B.V. (formerly Hollandse Signaalapparaten B.V. or in short Signaal) is a subsidiary of the French multinational company Thales Group based in the Netherlands. The firm was founded as ''NV Hazemeyer's Fabriek van Signaalapparate ...

2D air search (LW 08), 3D multi function (SMART-S) and two STIR 180 fire control radars in addition to two

Raytheon Raytheon Technologies Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense conglomerate headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. It is one of the largest aerospace and defense manufacturers in the world by revenue and market capitaliz ...

navigation radars. The SMART-S tracks aerial and surface objects and can cue targets to the STIR fire control radars tasked with

illuminating Lighting or illumination is the deliberate use of light to achieve practical or aesthetic effects. Lighting includes the use of both artificial light sources like lamps and light fixtures, as well as natural illumination by capturing dayligh ...

the tracked object for the semi-active (Evolved) Sea Sparrow missiles. The STIR radars are located below the SMART-S and in front of the LW 08 radars. Electronic countermeasures are provided by an EADS FL-1800S ECM suite. The class is fitted with an

Atlas Elektronik Atlas Elektronik is a naval/marine electronics and systems business based in Bremen, Germany. It is involved in the development of integrated sonar systems for submarines and heavyweight torpedoes. The company was a subsidiary of BAE Systems ...

DSQS-23BZ bow sonar. The ships were to receive low-frequency active sonars under the Franco-German LFTASS programme but France withdrew in 2000 and is now using a derivative of the British

Sonar 2087 Sonar 2087 is a towed array sonar designed and manufactured by Thales Underwater Systems at sites in the UK (Cheadle Heath in Stockport and Templecombe in Somerset) and in France ( Brest). Sonar 2087 replaces the older Sonar 2031 in the Royal Navy ...

; ''Bayern'' received the prototype TASS 6-3 sonar but it seems unlikely that more units will be ordered in the current budget environment.

Modernisation

From 2010 on, the F123 class underwent an upgrade under the auspices of the Fähigkeitsanpassung FüWES (FAF) project. The primary component of this program concerns the combat management system, for which SABRINA 21, a version of the

TACTICOS system has been installed. At the same time, the ships received an

IFF In logic and related fields such as mathematics and philosophy, "if and only if" (shortened as "iff") is a biconditional logical connective between statements, where either both statements are true or both are false. The connective is bicondi ...

upgrade to the

EADS Airbus SE (; ; ; ) is a European multinational aerospace corporation. Airbus designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace products worldwide and manufactures aircraft throughout the world. The company has three divisions: '' ...

Hensoldt Hensoldt AG ''(HENSOLDT)'' is a multinational corporation headquartered in Germany which focuses on sensor technologies for protection and surveillance missions in the defence, security and aerospace sectors. The main product areas are radar, opt ...

MSSR 2000 I

secondary radar Secondary surveillance radar (SSR)''Secondary Surveillance Radar'', Stevens M.C. Artech House, is a radar system used in air traffic control (ATC), that unlike primary radar systems that measure the bearing and distance of targets using the de ...

system. However, its primary radars, specifically its long-range 2D search radar, the LW 08, and its medium-range 3D surveillance radar, the SMART-S, were excluded at the time. In July 2021, Swedish defense company

Saab Saab or SAAB may refer to: Brands and enterprises * Saab Group, a Swedish aerospace and defence company, formerly known as SAAB, and later as Saab AB ** Datasaab, a former computer company, started as spin off from Saab AB * Saab Automobile, a fo ...

was awarded a contract over the delivery and installation of their Sea Giraffe 4A (replacing the LW 08), Sea Giraffe 1X (replacing the SMART-S) and

CEROS 200 Fire Control Radar CEROS 200 (CElsius tech Radar and Optronic Site) is a radar and optronic tracking fire control director designed by Saab for use along with the 9LV Naval Fire Control System on naval ships. When interfaced to modern missile or gun systems it p ...

as well as the 9LV combat management system and an

system replacement. The work is to be carried out at the facilities of German shipyard

Abeking & Rasmussen Abeking & Rasmussen (A&R) is a shipyard situated in Lemwerder, near Bremen in the German state of Lower Saxony. The shipyard is on the left bank of the River Weser, and currently comprises five production halls with associated workshops and off ...

, with logistical support by ESG.

Ships

All ships of the class are named after German Bundesländer and are based in

Wilhelmshaven Wilhelmshaven (, ''Wilhelm's Harbour''; Northern Low Saxon: ''Willemshaven'') is a coastal town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the western side of the Jade Bight, a bay of the North Sea, and has a population of 76,089. Wilhelms ...

as ''2. Fregattengeschwader'' (''2nd Frigate Squadron'') of the

Service history

On the morning of Wednesday 9 December 2015, ''Mecklenburg-Vorpommern'' was transiting the

Kiel Canal The Kiel Canal (german: Nord-Ostsee-Kanal, literally "North- oEast alticSea canal", formerly known as the ) is a long freshwater canal in the Germany, German states of Germany, state of Schleswig-Holstein. The canal was finished in 1895, ...

when she was involved in a collision with the

container ship A container ship (also called boxship or spelled containership) is a cargo ship that carries all of its load in truck-size intermodal containers, in a technique called containerization. Container ships are a common means of commercial intermoda ...

''Nordic Bremen'' causing damage to both vessels. ''Mecklenburg-Vorpommern'' suffered a gash along her

bow Bow often refers to: * Bow and arrow, a weapon * Bowing, bending the upper body as a social gesture * An ornamental knot made of ribbon Bow may also refer to: * Bow (watercraft), the foremost part of a ship or boat * Bow (position), the rower ...

at the level of the main deck, whilst ''Nordic Bremen'' fared better, having only to offload two damaged containers before continuing its voyage. From August 2021 to February 2022, F217 ''Bayern'' is traversing the Horn of Africa, Australia, and Japan on an Indo-Pacific deployment, engaging in numerous port calls on the way. The Japanese foreign minister

Nobuo Kishi is a Japanese politician who serves as the Special Advisor to the Prime Minister for National Security Policy and Nuclear Disarmament Issues. A member of the Liberal Democratic Party, he previously served as Minister of Defense of Japan from S ...

had previously called on Germany to send a warship to East Asia and exercise with

JMSDF , abbreviated , also simply known as the Japanese Navy, is the maritime warfare branch of the Japan Self-Defense Forces, tasked with the naval defense of Japan. The JMSDF was formed following the dissolution of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) ...

forces.

Images

Image:F218 Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Bugansicht.jpg, F218 ''Mecklenburg-Vorpommern'' Image:Fregatte_Brandenburg_F215.jpg, F215 ''Brandenburg'' Image:German frigate Bayern (F217) underway in the Baltic Sea on 13 June 2008 (080613-N-3396B-046).jpg, F217 ''Bayern'' Image:Fregatte Schleswig-Holstein 7298.jpg, F216 ''Schleswig-Holstein'' in

Hamburg Harbor The Port of Hamburg (german: Hamburger Hafen, ) is a seaport on the river Elbe in Hamburg, Germany, from its mouth on the North Sea. Known as Germany's "Gateway to the World" (''Tor zur Welt''), it is the country's largest seaport by v ...

References

External links

naval-technology.com
{{Ship classes of the Deutsche Marine