Fincantieri celebrates success in Indonesia

The Italian group Fincantieri was awarded a contract in Indonesia for the delivery of six Fremm frigates, the modernisation and sale of two frigates of the Maestrale-class and the logistical support associated with both programmes. The modernisation of the two ships of the Maestrale-class, which Fincantieri will take over from the Italian Navy after its decommissioning, is to be realised in Italy.
Among other things, the Indonesian navy operates two modern frigates of the Martadinata-class (a Sigma design by Damen Naval Shipbuilding) and five former Dutch Navy frigates of the Van Speijk-class. The larger surface units also include ten corvettes of Dutch and British origin. In addition, there are 14 units categorised as U-Jagd corvettes of the Parchim-I-class of the Volksmarine.
Jakarta is pursuing a Minimum Essential Force Plan to increase and modernise the fleet, which envisages a total of 151 ships as a minimum, 220 ships as standard or 274 ships in the ideal case by 2024. As part of the further expansion of the fleet in the frigate size range, the shortlist of four designs was announced earlier this year: an improved variant of Damen's Sigma 10514 design, the new 30FFM class being built by Japanese shipbuilder Mitsui for the Japanese Navy, Babcock's Arrowhead 140 and Fincantieri's Fremm.
The new Fremm frigates are to be built in Italy, and Fincantieri is endeavouring to cooperate with the local PT-PAL shipyard (Java). The Trieste-based group wants to build the two units of the Maestrale-class from the Italian Navy as soon as they are decommissioned and modernised in Italy. The Italian Navy currently still has four of the frigates of this type, which were built between 1983 and 1985, in service.
Nothing has been published about the costs. The price of the Fremm-class frigates is estimated differently in the other user countries. While Italy estimates around 800 million euros, the cost in France is 860 million per unit. The US Navy reported 714.5 million euros (870 million US dollars) to the US Congress, which in turn stated the cost per unit at 985.5 million euros (1.2 billion dollars).

Text: Hans-Uwe Mergener; Photo: Marina Militare