NNS ''Aradu'' (F89) (meaning "thunder" in

Hausa Hausa may refer to: * Hausa people, an ethnic group of West Africa * Hausa language, spoken in West Africa * Hausa Kingdoms, a historical collection of Hausa city-states * Hausa (horse) or Dongola horse, an African breed of riding horse See also ...

) is a Nigerian Navy

frigate A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and maneuvera ...

. She is the first of the

MEKO 360 The MEKO 360 is a class of five ships built in Germany for the Argentine and Nigerian navies. The MEKO 360 was the first version of the MEKO family of vessels built by Blohm und Voss. The type comes in two variants, the MEKO 360H1, comprising on ...

general purpose frigates built by the German company,

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 * Irma Blohm (1909–1997), German pol ...

. The ship is the largest in the

Nigerian Navy The Nigerian Navy (NN) is the Navy, naval branch of the Nigerian Armed Forces, Nigerian armed forces. With more than 70 warships, it is categorised as the fourth strongest navy in Africa (after South Africa, Egypt, Algeria and Morocco). It is co ...

. As a general purpose frigate, ''Aradu'' has capabilities for

anti-air Anti-aircraft warfare (AAW) is the counter to aerial warfare and includes "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It encompasses surface-based, subsurface ( submarine-launched), and air-bas ...

, anti-surface and

anti-submarine An anti-submarine weapon (ASW) is any one of a number of devices that are intended to act against a submarine and its crew, to destroy (sink) the vessel or reduce its capability as a weapon of war. In its simplest sense, an anti-submarine weapon ...

warfare effectively, and participated in the 200th anniversary celebrations of the Battle of Trafalgar. The ship also possesses capability for naval fire support and electronic warfare. Additionally, she carries a ship-borne helicopter for anti-submarine warfare,

search and rescue Search and rescue (SAR) is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger. The general field of search and rescue includes many specialty sub-fields, typically determined by the type of terrain the search ...

, and enhanced surveillance/detection.

Design and description

The first of the

type

s, ''Aradu'' was constructed using modular prefabrication and containerised weapons and sensors. The first frigate to be built in this manner, this allowed for speedier construction time. The ship measures at the

waterline The waterline is the line where the hull of a ship meets the surface of the water. A waterline can also refer to any line on a ship's hull that is parallel to the water's surface when the ship is afloat in a level trimmed position. Hence, wate ...

and

overall Overalls or bib-and-brace overalls, also called dungarees in British English, are a type of garment usually used as protective clothing when working. The garments are commonly referred to as a "pair of overalls" by analogy with "pair of trousers ...

with a beam of and a draught of . The frigate's

full load displacement The displacement or displacement tonnage of a ship is its weight. As the term indicates, it is measured indirectly, using Archimedes' principle, by first calculating the volume of water displaced by the ship, then converting that value into weig ...

is . The ship is powered by a CODOG system made up of two

Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to: * Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct Automobiles * Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...

Olympus TM3B gas turbines rated at giving the ship a maximum speed of during use and two MTU Type V 956 TH92

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after the German engineer Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which Combustion, ignition of diesel fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to Mechanics, mechanical Compr ...

s rated at with a maximum speed of under use. The engines turn two Kamewa

controllable pitch propeller Controllability is an important property of a control system and plays a crucial role in many regulation problems, such as the stabilization of unstable systems using feedback, tracking problems, obtaining optimal control strategies, or, simply p ...

s and the vessel carries of fuel. This gives the frigate a range of at , with an endurance of 90 days.Saunders (2009), p. 564.Gardiner, Chumbley & Budzbon, p. 286. The ship is armed with eight Otomat Mk 1 ship-to-ship missiles carried amidships with four situated behind the

mast Mast, MAST or MASt may refer to: Engineering * Mast (sailing), a vertical spar on a sailing ship * Flagmast, a pole for flying a flag * Guyed mast, a structure supported by guy-wires * Mooring mast, a structure for docking an airship * Radio mas ...

and forward the twin

funnels A funnel is a tube or pipe that is wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, used for guiding liquid or powder into a small opening. Funnels are usually made of stainless steel, aluminium, glass, or plastic. The material used in its constructi ...

and two each amidships on each side of the ship. The vessel is also armed with twenty-four

Aspide Aspide, named for the asp, is an Italian medium range air-to-air and surface-to-air missile produced by Selenia and its successors, Alenia Aeronautica and MBDA that was developed in the 1970s to replace license built AIM-7 Sparrows then in us ...

surface-to-air missile A surface-to-air missile (SAM), also known as a ground-to-air missile (GTAM) or surface-to-air guided weapon (SAGW), is a missile designed to be launched from the ground or the sea to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of anti-ai ...

s in an octuple launcher mounted atop the

hangar A hangar is a building or structure designed to hold aircraft or spacecraft. Hangars are built of metal, wood, or concrete. The word ''hangar'' comes from Middle French ''hanghart'' ("enclosure near a house"), of Germanic origin, from Frankish ...

. ''Aradu'' is armed with one

OTO Melara OTO Melara was a subsidiary of the Italian company Finmeccanica, today Leonardo, active in the defence sector, with factories in Brescia and La Spezia. From 1 January 2016, the activities of OTO Melara merged into Leonardo's Defence Systems ...

Otobreda 127/54 Compact The Otobreda 127mm/54 Compact (''127/54C'') gun is a dual purpose naval artillery piece built by the Italian company Oto Melara. It uses the 127mm round which is also used in the 5 inch/ 54 gun, albeit that this gun calibre is measured in United ...

gun mounted forward and four twin-mounted

Bofors 40 mm gun Bofors 40 mm gun is a name or designation given to models of 40 mm calibre automatic anti-aircraft guns designed and developed by the Swedish company Bofors: * Bofors 40 mm Automatic Gun L/43 - developed in the 1930s with market entry in 1934, wid ...

s situated forward behind the 5-inch gun and to either side of the hangar. ''Aradu'' also has six STWS-13

torpedo tube A torpedo tube is a cylindrical device for launching torpedoes. There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, and deck-mounted units (also referred to as torpedo launchers) installed aboa ...

s in two triple mounts located amidships on either side of the ship and one

depth charge A depth charge is an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) weapon designed to destroy submarine A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited ...

rack. ''Aradu'' is equipped with Plessey AWS 5 air/surface search

radar Radar is a system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), direction ( azimuth and elevation angles), and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It is a radiodetermination method used to detect and track ...

, Racal Decca 1226 navigation radar, Signaal STIR and WM 25 fire control radar and Atlas Elektronik hull-mounted

sonar Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigate, measure distances ( ranging), communicate with or detect objects o ...

. The ship originally mounted PHS 32 sonar, but this was later replaced.Couhat, p. 358. The frigate mounts two chaff dispensers and Decca RDL-2

electronic support measures In military telecommunications, electronic support (ES) or electronic support measures (ESM) gather intelligence through passive "listening" to electromagnetic radiations of military interest. They are an aspect of electronic warfare involving ...

. The ship has a hangar and

flight deck The flight deck of an aircraft carrier is the surface on which its aircraft take off and land, essentially a miniature airfield at sea. On smaller naval ships which do not have aviation as a primary mission, the landing area for helicopters ...

capable of operation two helicopters of the Westland Lynx Mk.89 type, but usually only carries one. The vessel has a complement of 195, including 26 officers.

Construction and history

The need to have a modern sophisticated frigate to complement and eventually replace the Nigerian Navy's long serving frigate, became apparent to naval planners in the mid-1970s. NNS ''Nigeria'' was fast becoming irrelevant in the fast changing world of naval technology. The Nigerian Navy needed to reach blue waters with the appropriate ships in terms of firepower, extended operational range and enhanced surveillance capability. The MEKO 360 frigate became the answer to these aspirations. The ship initially named ''Republic'' was ordered on 3 November 1977 from

. Her

keel The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element of a watercraft, important for stability. On some sailboats, it may have a fluid dynamics, hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose as well. The keel laying, laying of the keel is often ...

was

laid down Laying the keel or laying down is the formal recognition of the start of a ship's construction. It is often marked with a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the shipbuilding company and the ultimate owners of the ship. Keel laying is one ...

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

on 1 December 1978 and she was launched on 25 January 1980. On 1 November of the same year, following a new policy of the Nigerian Navy, the frigate was renamed ''Aradu'' meaning "thunder". The ship was deemed completed on 4 September 1981. ''Aradu'' sailed from its shipyard and arrived

Lagos Lagos ( ; ), or Lagos City, is a large metropolitan city in southwestern Nigeria. With an upper population estimated above 21 million dwellers, it is the largest city in Nigeria, the most populous urban area on the African continent, and on ...

on 21 December 1981 and was commissioned on 22 February 1982. Since she entered naval service, NNS ''Aradu'' has taken part in major

naval exercises A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations ...

, fleet reviews and diplomatic cruises. She played a prominent part in "Operation Seadog" in 1985 and "Operation Odion" in 1987. In 1987, ''Aradu''

ran aground Ship grounding or ship stranding is the impact of a ship on seabed or waterway side. It may be intentional, as in beaching to land crew or cargo, and careening, for maintenance or repair, or unintentional, as in a marine accident. In accidenta ...

twice and was involved in a major collision. The frigate underwent a significant refit in 1991 at Wilmont Point, Lagos with Blohm + Voss aid, lasting until 1994.Saunders (2004), p. 510. The ship has undertaken extensive diplomatic visits to countries like Gabon, Congo, Zaire, Equatorial Guinea and numerous European countries. She has also participated in joint exercises with visiting ships of the German, Indian, French and the Brazilian navies. ''Aradu'' ran aground again early in 1994 during post refit trials, and was assessed as beyond economical repair in 1995, but then managed to go to sea again in early 1996, and again in 1997 when she broke down for several months in

Monrovia Monrovia () is the administrative capital city, capital and largest city of Liberia. Founded in 1822, it is located on Cape Mesurado on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast and as of the 2022 census had 1,761,032 residents, home to 33.5% of Liber ...

, Liberia. She then steamed back to Lagos on one engine in 1998. ''Aradu'' was refitted, refurbished and equipped after being alongshore for over twelve years. The ship proved it was still seaworthy by taking part in celebrations commemorating the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar by sailing to Great Britain in August 2005 to join 100 warships from 36 navies. The frigate also participated in two major exercises in 2005 and 2006, called "Igbochi" and "Idabo". During the

Second Liberian Civil War The Second Liberian Civil War was a civil war in the West African nation of Liberia that lasted from 1999 to 2003. The war was mainly caused by transition failures after the First Civil War, especially the peace-building process which would res ...

, ''Aradu'' patrolled Liberian waters, showing the flag. In a bid to strengthen Nigeria/Brazil military cooperation, two naval ships, ''Aradu'' and ''Nwamba'', departed Nigeria on 3 August 2007 to take part in Brazil BiCentenary Celebrations. The ships arrived in Monrovia, Liberia, on 9 August. They were received by the Chief of Defense Staff of Liberia, Major General Abdurahman of the Nigerian Army. From there, they sailed to

Recife Recife ( , ) is the Federative units of Brazil, state capital of Pernambuco, Brazil, on the northeastern Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of South America. It is the largest urban area within both the North Region, Brazil, North and the Northeast R ...

before entering

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

for the celebrations. By 2017, the condition of ''Aradu'' was reported as "deplorable" and the Nigerian Navy stated that over 250 million dollars were required to make the ship seaworthy. As the Nigerian Navy did not have the funds to make such an investment, ''Aradu'' remains dockside. In late 2019, photographs of ''Aradu'' surfaced online which showed the frigate was undergoing a refit at the Naval Dockyard limited in Victoria Island, Lagos. In the photographs, metal sheets were being welded on the lower part of the ship's

hull Hull may refer to: Structures * The hull of an armored fighting vehicle, housing the chassis * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds * Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a sea-going craft * Submarine hull Ma ...

. Also, according to an article published by Military Africa on 6 February 2020, ''Aradu'' was to be made operational before the end of 2020. Furthermore, the report also suggests that ''Aradu'' would not be fully refitted for combat operations due to the age and obsolescence of its weapons, fire control and navigational systems, but would undertake a new mission as a combat training ship for Nigeria's new general-purpose frigate valued at $350 million, expected to be delivered in the coming years. In April 2021, Nigerian Navy announced plan to acquire new frigate to replace ''Aradu'' and to serve as the new flagship of the navy.

Notes

Citations

References

* * * *

External links

Minor Navies of the World (''Aradu'' photo)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aradu Frigates of Nigeria 1980 ships Meko 360-class frigates of the Nigerian Navy Ships built in Hamburg