The French contender for Australia's future submarine and likely future frigate candidate DCNS has floated the French Navy’s FREMM multi-mission frigate Auvergne in Lorient on 2 September.
The FREMM Auvergne is the sixth frigate in the programme and fourth of the series ordered by OCCAR on behalf of the DGA (the French defence procurement agency) for the French Navy.
With three FREMMs currently under construction in DCNS’ Lorient site, DCNS is accelerating the production speed in order to deliver six FREMMs to the French Navy before mid-2019.
Two additional frigates equipped with strengthened anti-aircraft capacities will be delivered before 2022. Two further units have also been sold to international clients - the Royal Moroccan Navy and the Egyptian Navy.
“The floating of the FREMM Auvergne, after the delivery of the FREMM Tahya Misr to the Egyptian Navy and the delivery of the FREMM Provence in June, demonstrate DCNS’s ability to successfully achieve a serial production”, FREMM Programme Director at DCNS Anne Bianchi explained.
DCNS commenced construction of the FREMM Auvergne in August 2012. This new-generation frigate will be operated by an optimised crew of 108 (half that required for the frigates of the previous generation). Delivery of the FREMM Aquitaine, the first multi-mission frigate to be built for the French Navy, was taken by OCCAR on 23 November 2012 on behalf of the DGA.
The FREMM frigates, versions of which are also built by Italian shipbuilders Ficantieri and Finmeccanica for the Italian Navy, are likely to be one of the main contenders for Australia's Future Frigate program (Sea 5000), set to begin construction in 2020.
• Total length: 142 metres
• Width: 20 metres
• Displacement: 6,000 tonnes
• Maximum speed: 27 knots
• Crew: 108 persons (including the helicopter detachment)
• Accommodation capacity: 145 men and women
• Range: 6,000 nautical miles at 15 knots
Past and future FREMM milestones:
- The FREMM Aquitaine, first in series, delivered in 2012
- The FREMM Mohammed VI, delivered to the Royal Moroccan Navy in 2014
- The FREMM Provence delivered in June 2015
- The FREMM Tahya Misr, delivered to the Egyptian Navy in July 2015
- The FREMM Languedoc will perform its first sea outing in autumn 2015
- The FREMM Auvergne, floated today
- The FREMM Bretagne is currently being assembled