Naval Group is extremely honored to host the French Minister for the Armed Forces, Florence Parly. This celebration marks not only the end of work on the six multi-mission frigates, but also the beginning of the manufacturing of the FREMM frigates with reinforced air defence capabilities and of the Defence and Intervention Frigate (FDI), the first fully digital warships.
Hervé Guillou, CEO of Naval Group, and Admiral Christophe Prazuck, Chief of Staff of the French Navy, hosted the Minister for the Armed Forces on board the Normandiefrigate for a visit. This warship was delivered in a record time of 40 months, the shortest completion time of the whole multi-mission frigates program.
Florence Parly and Hervé Guillou had the opportunity to discuss the ongoing and future surface ships programs built in Lorient: FREMM, FDI and aircraft carriers.
Hervé Guillou claimed: “We are proud to meet the expectations set by the Millitary Programming Law. Today, with the completion of the FREMM Normandie, Naval Group has fulfilled its commitment. This industrial and technical success, which represents more than 2.5 millions working hours, encourages us to keep on completing our mission in service of our national and international clients. This project shows once again the firm’s capacity to respect its engagements in terms of costs, deadlines and performance”.
Industrial excellence
The Normandie is the sixth French multi-mission FREMM frigate. It will soon be delivered in Brest. This program is managed by the OCCAR (Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation) on behalf of – in France – the French Navy and of the French Defence Procurement Agency (DGA).
At the same time the construction of two multi-mission frigates with renewed anti-air defence capacities – the Alsace and the Lorraine – will begin in Lorient. They will be respectively delivered in 2021 and 2022.
Furthermore, Naval Group teams are already launching the program for defence and intervention frigates (FDI) that will be delivered from 2023 onward. This first “fully digital” warship will benefit from the latest digital technologies. The first cut of steel-sheets is expected in October 2019.
FREMM frigates technical characteristics
Heavily armed, the Normandie FREMM deploys the most effective equipment and weapon systems, integrating the SETIS software as well as the Herakles multi-function radar, the naval cruise missile (NCM), the Aster and Exocet MM40 missiles and MU 90 torpedoes.
- Overall length: 142 metres
- Width: 20 metres
- Displacement: 6,000 tonnes
- Max. speed: 27 knots
- Implementation: 123 persons (among whom 14 dedicated to the helicopter detachment)
- Range: 45 days
