VJTF and SNMG1: The "Hessians" are also back in action!

From a press release by the Rostock Naval Command

On Monday, 24 July 2023 at 10 a.m., the F124 class frigate "Hessen" will depart for the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF). During her six-month deployment, the ship will be travelling in the North Sea, Baltic Sea and North Atlantic. In addition, as the flagship and command platform of Standing NATO Maritime Group 1, she will take over as head of the organisation for the group commander, Flotilla Admiral Thorsten Marx (55). The "Hessen" only returned from a deployment as part of the aircraft carrier battle group around the new US carrier "Gerald R. Ford" in mid-November.

The VJTF, known as the NATO spearhead, is part of the NATO Response Force (NRF). The VJTF enables NATO to react quickly and flexibly to security policy developments. The German Navy also participates in the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force and thus makes an important contribution to national and alliance defence.

Frigate "Hessen" departs with a crew of 245 personnel. This includes the command staff of Task Group 441.01 with 23 servicewomen and men and a tactical combat component of the naval aviators with 18 servicewomen and men.

Background information

Frigate type F124

The navy has a total of three Sachsen-class frigates. They are designed as multi-purpose ships for convoy protection and sea-space control. Their main focus is air defence: With its SMART-L (Signal Multibeam Acquisition Radar for Tracking, L band) radar, a single Sachsen-class unit can, for example, monitor the airspace over the entire North Sea. The Sachsen-class radar is capable of detecting more than 1,000 targets simultaneously.

If necessary, the SM2 anti-aircraft missiles from the Sachsen-class Mk41 VLS (Vertical Launching System) vertical launch system can reach over 160 kilometres. All sensors and weapons on board are optimised for the main task of air defence. The computer centrepiece of the Sachsen class is the command and weapon deployment system (FüWES) with powerful computing power: it processes all the data from the radars and other sensors as well as the information supplied by allied ships. The system is redundantly distributed across more than a dozen computers on board.

With these capabilities, the Class 124 frigates have been integrated into United States Navy aircraft carrier battle groups in the North Atlantic on several occasions.

Thanks to its good communication system with radio and satellite links, the Sachsen class is also capable of guiding several other warships at the same time. The on-board helicopters of the Sachsen class are used for long-range hunting of submarines.

The opening photo shows the frigate F 221 Hessen during pre-wetting as part of its participation in the Carrier Strike Group (CSG) off the East American coast in March 2018. The upper deck is sprayed with a fine mist as part of an NBC exercise to prevent any fallout or warfare agents from settling on the upper deck. The frigate tests the individual sections alternately and then together at the end. The aim is to envelop the ship with a bell of water. Soldiers from main section 100 check the function of every single nozzle on board. To do this, they wear orange-coloured cold protection suits.