First of three FDI frigates is launched

Greece’s ambitious armaments procurement program reached another milestone Wednesday with the official launch of the frigate Kimon at Lorient, France.

The Kimon, a Belharra-class defense and intervention frigate (FDI), represents the cutting edge for this type of vessel. It is a far cry from the Salamis, the MEKO-class frigate that joined the Greek fleet in 2000 as the last commissioned ship before the Kimon.

Defense Minister Nikos Dendias and his French counterpart, Sebastien Lecornu, attended the official launch.

At the Naval Group shipyard, one could also see the Amiral Ronarc’h, the first FDI launched some 11 months ago. She is still in the testing phase, before joining the French fleet.

“The new frigates will be the navy’s tip of the spear and will serve to project power,” Dendias said after being shown around the Kimon by Lecornu and the chief of Greece’s Navy General Staff, Vice Admiral Ioannis Drymousis.

Dendias also commented on a recent report in a Turkish newspaper that Greece is supposedly ready to demilitarize its eastern Aegean islands to comply with Turkish demands. “You do not demilitarize what is under threat,” he said.

The next step is the installation of the PSIM (Panoramic Sensors & Intelligence Module) integrated mast that functions as the vessel’s brains. It contains the Sea Fire radar and combat and information distribution systems. According to its designers, the mast will be installed at the end of October. Its component systems have already been tested. Other works in the ship’s interior and exterior will be finished in early 2023 and the so-called Factory Acceptance Test will follow.

Then, the Greek naval officers that will operate the Kimon, who are already in Lorient along with its core crew, will conduct the Harbor and Sea Acceptance Tests.

The Hellenic Navy contingent will be trained in simulators to familiarize themselves with the frigate’s systems that represent the cutting edge of technology. Officers from the Naval Weapons Directorate will also travel to Lorient to be trained in the technology to support Aster 30 guided missiles. At the same time, work has started on a new weapons workshop at Salamina Naval Base, across the sea from Piraeus; it must be completed before the end of 2024.

The Kimon will join the Greek fleet in early 2025 as F-601. The  Nearchos (F-602), whose construction has already begun, will follow in October 2025; a year later, the Phormion (F-603) will be delivered.

The arrival of the three FDIs will upgrade the navy’s firepower dramatically, creating a large access interdiction area around the ships, something that the fleet, in its current configuration, does not have.