Navy French Navy receives FREMM Alsace from Naval Group

[Isa Khan]

According to information published by the French Armed Forces on April 16, 2021, Naval Group delivered the FREMM DA Alsace at the French Navy during a ceremony with the French Minister of Armed Forces Florence Parly. FREMM Alsace D656 is the first of the two air defense frigates of the FREMM program. Alsace (D656) is an Aquitaine-class frigate of the French Navy developed through the FREMM multipurpose frigate program. She is the first of two air-defence variants of the class known as FREMM DA (Frégate Européenne Multimissions de Défense Aérienne) in the program.

Alsace and her sister ship retain most of the armaments and sensors of their ASW sister ships within the FREMM class. However, the ships have enhancements related to air defence including a more powerful Thales Herakles multi-function radar with more transmitter modules and additional wave-forms and search modes for long-range air defence.

The ships also incorporate Sylver A50 vertical launch systems permitting them to carry both MBDA Aster 15 and/or 30 surface-to-air missiles. On the two AAW variants, the Sylver A70 launch systems (used for land-attack cruise missiles on the ASW variants) are removed to provide space for fitting double the number of A50 cells for Aster SAMs.

The FREMM Program is an European naval defence project assigned to OCCAR (Organisation Conjointe de Coopération en matière d'Armement / Organisation for Joint Armament Co-operation) that was launched in 2005. The FREMM program consists of the construction of 18 ships including 8 for France, 10 for Italy. The FREMM is built in Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASM/ASW), Anti-Air Warfare (FREDA) and General Purpose (GP) versions.

French Navy receives FREMM Alsace from Naval Group

Naval Group delivered the FREMM DA Alsace at the French Navy.

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