French shipyard Naval Group announces the construction of the fist digital Frigate of the French Navy. 

Yesterday, the first sheet of the defence and intervention frigate (IDF) was cut at the Naval Group site in Lorient. The ceremony took place in the presence of the Minister of Armies, Florence Parly, the General Delegation for the Armament, Joël Barre, the Chief of Staff of the National Navy, Admiral Prazuck, his Greek counterpart, Vice-Admiral Nikolaos Tsounis, numerous foreign delegations and the President and CEO of Naval Group, Hervé Guillou. This first five-series vessel will be delivered in 2023.

Sylvain Perrier, Director of the IDF programme at Naval Group, said to Yachting Art at the event: "We are proud to take this first milestone in industrial production today, after the successful completion of the studies and development stages. This ceremony is the beginning of a major programme, under the command of the DGA, for the French Navy. It will enable Naval Group to develop its international reach. This programme will increase the number of top-ranked French navy frigates by 2030 to 15, as provided for in the Military Programming Act. In this way, we respect our commitments, in particular through the collaborative working method adopted with our customer and through the mobilisation of all state and industrial actors. "

A multi-mission digital frigate, in class 4 500 tonnes

IDF is a high-seas vessel of a class 4,500-ton displacement, versatile, enduring and capable of operating, alone or within a naval force, in all areas of control: anti-ship, anti-air, anti-submarine and projection of special forces.

They are the first frigates to benefit from an innovative digital architecture that enables them to continuously adapt to technological and operational developments, making them capable of responding to current and future threats, and of ensuring the processing of increasingly large data.

Highly armed (Exocet anti-aircraft missiles, MM40 B3C, Aster 15 anti-aircraft missiles and Aster 30 anti-submarine torpedoes, MU90 artillery), IDF can simultaneously embark a helicopter and an air drone, and receive special forces with their two command boats. They are also equipped with the new four-panel Seafire radar developed by Thales.

The IDF will be the first French frigates natively protected against the cyber threat, with a redundant IT architecture around two Data Centers that host almost all of the ship's applications.

Under operational innovation, IDF is launching the concept of a system dedicated to combating asymmetric threats. Located behind the bridge, it will lead the fight against air and surface threats, including minidrones and trapped boats. The IDF is a powerful and innovative frigate, designed to cope with the changing threats.

The design and production of the IDF follows the FREMM programme: Naval Group is benefiting from the feedback of operational experience from the National Marine.

The first of the series will be named after Admiral Ronarc’h, the name of a very great Admiral, Chief of General Staff of the National Navy between 1919 and 1920, who appeared during the first World War at the helm of marine rifles and sailors from all ports.

Key figures:

• Displacement: class 4 500 tonnes
• Length: 122 meters
• Beam: 18 meters
• Top speed: 27 knots
• Autonomy: 45 days
• Housing capacity: 125 + 28 passengers