French Navy receives first FDI frigate

Naval Group handed over Amiral Ronarc'h in Brest on 17 October. (Naval Group)

French shipbuilding, systems, and services prime contractor Naval Group has confirmed the handover of the French Navy's first Defence and Intervention Frigate (Frégate de défense et d'intervention: FDI) Amiral Ronarc'h .

Announcing the delivery milestone on 20 October, the company said Amiral Ronarc'h was signed over to the Direction générale de l'armement (DGA) in Brest on 17 October. The ship – which was built and outfitted in Naval Group's Lorient shipyard – is the first of five FDI frigates for the French Navy.

Designed to progressively replace the five La Fayette-class frigates, the new Amiral Ronarc'h-class ships are intended to enable the French Navy to achieve a force of 15 first-rank frigates by 2030. In addition to providing the navy with a compact intermediate-sized multimission frigate to augment its two Horizon-class anti-air warfare frigates and the eight Aquitaine-class Frégate Européenne Multi-Mission ships, the FDI design is intended to form a key component of Naval Group's export warship portfolio.

Displacing approximately 4,500 tons, the FDI design adopts a novel ‘inverted' bow to improve seakeeping, an asymmetric warfare bridge to co-ordinate near-field ship self-defence, and an integrated command/sensor mast block known as the Panoramic Sensors and Intelligence Module (PSIM). A combined diesel and diesel machinery arrangement provides for a maximum speed of 27 kt and an endurance of up to 5,000 n miles at economical cruising speed.