{"id":47699,"date":"2025-08-08T08:44:28","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T06:44:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marineforum.online\/?p=47699"},"modified":"2025-09-29T20:46:52","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T18:46:52","slug":"frigate-f124-a-cesura","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marineforum.online\/en\/fregatte-f124-eine-zaesur\/","title":{"rendered":"Frigate F124 - a turning point"},"content":{"rendered":"

Class 124 frigates were once ahead of their time. However, the rapidly advancing development of their main sensor in particular has required an upgrade for years.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Only recently, the Marineforum asked the question \"Quo Vadis F124?\" at the end of the article congratulating the frigate Sachsen on its 20th anniversary of commissioning.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, the inspector of the navy has given an answer to this question. He has prioritised the availability of the units at sea. Instead of the extensive obsolescence elimination of the long-range sensor and the air defence capabilities, which has been planned for years and is now associated with a high project risk, the three Sachsen-class units are to be operated as trouble-free as possible until they are replaced in the middle of the coming decade. The good condition of the ship's operating systems allows the operational maintenance period to be extended and This further improves the availability of the units.<\/p>\n

\"Thales
Thales Naval Nederland has developed the powerful radar of the Smart-L, Photo: Thales<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The F124 frigate is the surface combatant of the German Navy, and its deployment at sea is an important contribution to deterrence as well as to national and alliance defence. It was developed to ward off a variety of threats. The main focus is on anti-aircraft defence, i.e. the protection of a group of ships against attacks from the air. However, it can also be used against targets on and under water.<\/p>\n

Ultra-modern 20 years ago<\/strong><\/p>\n

When they entered service 20 years ago, the F124 frigates were equipped with a variety of then state-of-the-art systems to support their air defence capabilities:<\/p>\n

- Sensors: SMART-L long-range radar and APAR phased array radar for early detection and tracking of aerial targets<\/p>\n

- Armament: Standard Missile 2 (SM-2) for long ranges and (at that time) primarily against aircraft, Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile (ESSM) against approaching missiles at medium range and the Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) system for defence against targets at close range. In addition, the OTO MELARA 76mm artillery system can also be used against air targets.<\/p>\n

Three-layer system<\/strong><\/p>\n

At the time of its commissioning, F124 was the only warship in the western world to be equipped with a 3-layer anti-aircraft missile system for defence against airborne threats.<\/p>\n

According to the preliminary operational concept dating back to the late 1980s, F124, as part of a larger NATO fleet, was to protect the supply of troops and material for the European theatre of war from North America against attacks by Soviet bombers with their missiles. In 1996, this concept was adapted to the then prevailing operational reality in the context of crisis response.<\/p>\n

\"German
German Class 124 frigates took part in the protection of US aircraft carrier groups on several occasions, photo: US Navy\/Scott Swofford<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The units thus joined the ranks of similar projects from other nations, with the high level of cooperation with the Netherlands being a key factor. Their air defence frigates of the De Zeven Provincien class were identical in design to the F124 (APAR\/SMART-L family). Denmark later also commissioned three frigates of the APAR\/SMART-L family. The British, French and Italian navies fitted systems that were not identical but similar in design to the Daring-class destroyers and the Horizon\/Orizzonte-class frigates (PAAMS family).<\/p>\n

F124 was put into service in 2004 as an air defence ship. Close cooperation with ground-based air defence in Germany and the Netherlands soon developed. This resulted in additional tasks for the ships in connection with integrated air defence. Here, the units were able to support ground-based air defence against the classic air threat with their long-range sensor for early warning and target designation. This was tested in simulation between 2004 and 2012 as part of the Joint Project Optic Windmill exercise and in reality in several experimental projects with ground-based air defence forces and the Air Force's operational command service. The Royal Netherlands Navy did the same with its four air defence frigates. In the middle of the last decade, the numerous joint force projects led to a leading position for German and Dutch air defence within NATO.<\/p>\n

\"Demonstrator
Demonstrator of the Smart-L MM, photo: Thales<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As early as 2006, work began on further developing the F124 into a sensor contribution to ballistic missile defence (BMD) as part of the then NATO Active Layer Ballistic Missile Defence programme. At that time, the Navy submitted an initial requirements document. This culminated in 2011 in a \"final capability requirement\", which, however, had not yet been signed by the cut-off date of the 2012 structural reform of the Bundeswehr and was therefore not \"folded over\" into the new armaments process. Now, after five years of work, it was necessary to start all over again.<\/p>\n

In 2013, the Navy submitted a new initiative for a sensor contribution to the NATO Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) programme, which was also new, as part of the Bundeswehr's new planning process. The aim was to work with the Netherlands to replace the SMART-L long-range sensors with a further development of these sensors, as the existing SMART-Ls were unable to detect targets in space and were already affected by obsolescence. This was intended to create the urgently needed capability for early warning and target designation for units already capable of BMD (e.g. US Aegis destroyers or ground-based Patriot units).<\/p>\n

This plan operated under the tough term \"Obsolescence elimination of the long-range sensor and capability extension F124 in air defence\" (ObsWuF LV F124) and was to be implemented from 2019 in accordance with the ministerial phase documents. However, the project itself subsequently proved to be just as slow. An increasing number of new demands prompted a departure from the original joint German-Dutch approach to procuring the SMART-L Multi Mission (MM). In 2021, the defence sector signed a contract for the development and procurement of a new TRS-4D\/LR ROT radar. The German system house Hensoldt is cooperating with the radar manufacturer ELTA, a subsidiary of the Israeli company IAI, on this sensor.<\/p>\n

At the same time, as part of the FORMIDABLE SHIELD exercise, the Dutch type ship, De Zeven Proviencien, used the new SMART-L MM to transmit the target track of a ballistic missile to the fire control systems of the US destroyer Paul Ignatius for the first time, which then successfully engaged the target with a Standard Missile 3. Proof of the sensor contribution to BMD (\"launch on remote\") was provided for the first time between European and US systems. The simplicity of integrating the old Dutch SMART-L radar with a further developed SMART-L MM into a Dutch deployment system, which is also used in the F124, led to success. On the other hand, the project to expand the capability in Germany failed after almost 20 years due to the high integration risk of the German-Israeli radar in the German-Dutch deployment system of the F124.<\/p>\n

The logical decision not to realise the highly complex ObsWuF LV F124 project did not originate in the navy. It had become necessary due to the delays in the project and the high risks involved. Instead of sending the units to dock for many years with an uncertain outcome, F124 is now to be made available to the fleet for its extensive tasks. The pending refits - independent of Obs WuF LV - in connection with the F124 master plan can then largely be scaffolded during the scheduled maintenance phases. This concerns modernisations of the EloKa system, the upgrade of the ESSM missiles and numerous other important components.<\/p>\n

Despite these planned upgrades, the F124's armament level still lags behind technological developments and the evolving threat spectrum (e.g. drones, hypersonic missiles and anti-ship ballistic missiles). The benchmarks here are the Dutch sister ships on the one hand and findings from international co-operation on the other. The Dutch counterparts not only have the required sensor capability and the technical prerequisites for successful networking with and integration into multinational formations (e.g. through modern armament levels of the command and control systems), but only a few weeks ago also demonstrated the ability to deploy long-range Tomahawk missiles against sea and land targets.<\/p>\n

As part of the joint capability analyses in the Maritime Theatre Defence Forum, it is clear that F124 is increasingly suffering capability losses compared to the partner navies mentioned above due to the failure to eliminate obsolescence. F124 also plays no role in the current start-up phase of the European Sky Shield Initiative (ESSI) initiated by Germany. In the coming years, until the successor units come on stream, it will now be a matter of maintaining the remaining air defence expertise in the navy and developing it further for the highly complex requirements of the future.<\/p>\n

In addition, there are in fact still numerous options for optimising the F124 deployment system, its sensors and effectors to meet the current threats through minor modifications.<\/p>\n

Two facts can be summarised: Until the arrival of the successor class F127, the three F124 frigates will remain the most powerful combat units despite their limitations and thus an indispensable part of the German fleet, even beyond air defence. And secondly: the procedures and processes introduced have not led to the capability expansion that has been demanded since 2006 and 2013 and are leading to tough decisions in the navy that are not justifiable.<\/p>\n

Andreas Uhl<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Einst waren die Fregatten der Klasse 124 ihrer Zeit voraus. Doch insbesondere die rasch fortschreitende Entwicklung ihres Hauptsensors erfordert seit Jahren ein Upgrade. Noch vor Kurzem stellte das Marineforum im Gl\u00fcckwunschartikel zum 20. Indienststellungsjubil\u00e4um der Fregatte Sachsen am Ende des Beitrages die Frage \u201eQuo Vadis F124?\u201c. Zwischenzeitlich hat der Inspekteur der Marine eine Antwort zu […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":47703,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20,486,32],"tags":[182,337,753,342,10337,340,1560,3319,4291,2410],"class_list":["post-47699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-streitkraefte","category-headlines","category-magazin","tag-deutsche-marine","tag-fregatte-f124","tag-hensoldt","tag-luftverteidigung","tag-marineplanung","tag-nato","tag-sachsen-klasse","tag-ueberwasserkampfschiff","tag-verbandsflugabwehr","tag-verteidigungspolitik"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marineforum.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marineforum.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marineforum.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marineforum.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marineforum.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47699"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/marineforum.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48977,"href":"https:\/\/marineforum.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47699\/revisions\/48977"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marineforum.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marineforum.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marineforum.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marineforum.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}