The German Federal Parliament's (Bundestag) budget committee has officially approved the procurement of Type 127 air defence frigates for the German Navy.
The German Navy's Type 127 program plans to acquire up to six additional air defence frigates to succeed the three Sachsen-class (Type 124/F124) frigates. The Sachsen-class air defence frigates served in the German Navy from 2004 to 2006 and are slated for decommissioning in the early 2030s.
The Type 127 air defence frigate can defend against hypersonic missiles and execute precision strikes.
The new five-plus-one Type 127 air defence frigates will be equipped with Lockheed Martin's Aegis combat management system (CMS).
After the German Federal Parliament endorses the Type 127 air defence frigate program, a design choice is anticipated in early 2025, with contract signing projected for later that year.
German shipbuilder thyssenkrupp Marine Systems (tkMS) has been designated to spearhead the new Type 127 air defence frigate development, with deliveries scheduled to commence in 2034.
In September 2024, the German firms tkMS and NVL Group announced a joint venture and a collaboration agreement to collaborate on the MEKO A-400 AMD (Air and Missile Defence) air defence frigate model developed by tkMS.
Germany's tkMS has indicated that if its MEKO A-400 AMD air defence frigate proposal is chosen, the building of the new F127-class frigate may commence as early as 2025. According to tkMS, the MEKO A-400 AMD frigate has a length of 160m, a width of 21m, a draft of 5.5m, a full load displacement of around 10,000tonnes, a top speed of 32knots, an operational range of around 4,000nmi, a sea operational duration of over 30 days, and a crew of around 150.
