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French Defense Minister: 8 FREMM For The Navy Followed by 5 New Generation FTI Frigates

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Naval Forces News - France
 
 
 
French Defense Minister: 8 FREMM For The Navy Followed by 5 New Generation FTI Frigates
 
French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian detailed the naval part of the update to the French Military Planning Law today on a naval base in Brittany. The French Navy will receive 8 FREMM Frigates in total (while 11 of them were originally planned) and a new generation of frigates: the FTI (Frégate de Taille Intermédiaire or Midsize Frigate) which will start being delivered in 2023 for a total of 5 hulls.
     
French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian detailed the naval part of the update to the French Military Planning Law today on a naval base in Brittany. The French Navy will receive 8 FREMM Frigates in total (while 11 of them were originally planned) and a new generation of frigates: the FTI (Frégate de Taille Intermédiaire or Midsize Frigate) which will start being delivered in 2023 for a total of 5 hulls.French Navy FREMM Frigate Provence arrives to Toulon naval base for the first time.
Picture: Y.Bisson©Marine Nationale
     
French Defense Minister explained during his speech today that the delivery of a FREMM Frigate to Egypt (the former Normandie originally intended for the French Navy) will be compensated and six ASW FREMM Frigates will be delivered to the French Navy by the end of 2019 in accordance with the Military Planning Law. As a consequence, the production of these frigates will be accelerated. Subsequently, by 2022, two more ASW FREMM Frigates will be delivered. These two FREMMs will have increased air defense capabilities compared to existing FREMMs. Finally, these will be followed by the delivery of five new FTI Frigates starting in 2023.

Jean-Yves Le Drian declared "In order to take into account the updated FREMM delivery schedule I just mentioned, I decided to accelerate the FTI program by nearly two years. The launch of this program will allow a first delivery from 2023, in line with the FREMM production in Lorient. [...] I would like to stress here the decision taken on FTI frigates. Beyond the major challenge for our Navy, FTI is also all about good industrial policy choices. The analysis led by the DGA (ed.note: French procurement agency) in collaboration with DCNS and its partner Thales, has indeed demonstrated the need for a strengthening of a French offer for export, which is complementary to the FREMM product. The challenge is also to differentiate us on a technological level ten years from today from the global competition concentrated in the segment of mid-size frigates with the launch of similar projects in Spain, Italy and Germany among others. In this double perspective, operational and industrial, the anticipated launch of the FTI midsize frigate program will allow to match the format set by the White Paper on defense, giving DCNS and all subcontractors a significant visibility in their load plans (both in engineering and in production). It will also provide the FREMM a complementary product enabling DCNS to expand its export competitiveness.".
     
French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian detailed the naval part of the update to the French Military Planning Law today on a naval base in Britanny. The French Navy will receive 8 FREMM Frigates in total (while 11 of them were originally planned) and a new generation of frigates: the FTI (Frégate de Taille Intermédiaire or Midsize Frigate) which will start being delivered in 2023 for a total of 5 hulls.The future French Navy FTI could be an evolution of DCNS' older FM400 project
     
According to early rumors, the future French Navy FTI will be a 4,000 class multi-role frigate. Navy Recognition believes the FTI could be an evolution of the FM400, a DCNS project for a 3,500 to 4,500 tons modular frigate launched in the early 2000s but shelved since. We also believe that some of the next generation technologies studied in the XWind 4000 concept ship could find their way in the future FTI frigates. Cost however will have to be contained for the FTI to be competitive on the export market.

The FTI program is good news for DCNS because, as stressed by the French Defense Minister, it will add a new product line to DCNS' surface combatant offering (with a vessel that will nicely fill the gap between the Gowind corvette and the FREMM frigate) and it will keep the production line open at the Lorient shipyard well into the 2020ies.

As for the French Navy the current format of 15 "front line" surface combatant will be kept.

Current 15 "front line" surface combatants of the French Navy as of today:
- 1x Aquitaine class Multi-Mission Frigate (FREMM)
- 2x Forbin class Air Defense Destroyers (Horizon)
- 2x Cassard class Anti-Aircraft Frigates (Type F70 AA)
- 5x Georges Leygues class ASW Frigates (Type F70 ASM)
- 5x Lafayette class Stealth Frigates (To be upgraded with sonar among other things)

Future 15 "front line" surface combatants of the French Navy at the end of the next decade:
- 8x Aquitaine class Multi-Mission Frigate (FREMM)
- 2x Forbin class Air Defense Destroyers (Horizon)
- 5x FTI midsize Frigates

Update 30/05/2015: A DCNS press release provides more details on the FTI.
The new frigate, developed and built by DCNS, will be a front line warship. This frigate will have the advantages of a modular, robust, easy to use and has an unrivaled operational capability on the market. Adapted to the needs of the French Navy and the navies of many countries, the new DCNS frigate benefit from the most advanced technology solutions, including planar array radar.