Sachsen-class frigate

Hessen on 11 April 2013
Class overview
Builders
Operators German Navy
Preceded byBrandenburg class
Succeeded byBaden-Württemberg class
Cost700 million per unit
Built1999–2006
In commission2003–present
Planned4
Completed3
Cancelled1
Active3
General characteristics
TypeFrigate
Displacement5,690 long tons (5,780 t) (Full load)
Length143 m (469 ft 2 in)
Beam17.44 m (57 ft 3 in)
Draft6 m (19 ft 8 in)
Propulsion
Speed29 knots (54 km/h; 33 mph)
Range4,000 nmi (7,400 km; 4,600 mi)+ at 18 kn (33 km/h; 21 mph)
Complement230 crew + 13 aircrew
Sensors and
processing systems
Electronic warfare
& decoys
  • 1 FL 1800 S II ECM suite
  • 6 Sippican Hycor SRBOC launcher
Armament
Aircraft carried2 Sea Lynx Mk.88A or 2 NH90 helicopters equipped with torpedoes, air-to-surface missiles Sea Skua, and/or heavy machine gun.

The F124 Sachsen class is the German Navy's latest class of air-defense frigates. The design of the hull is based on that of the F123 Brandenburg class but with enhanced stealth features designed to deceive an opponent's radar and acoustic sensors. The class incorporates an advanced multifunction radar APAR and a SMART-L long-range radar which is purported to be capable of detecting stealth aircraft and stealth missiles.

Although designated as frigates, they are comparable to destroyers in capability and were intended to replace the Navy's Lütjens class. They are similar to the Dutch De Zeven Provinciën class, in that both are based on the use of a common primary anti-air warfare system built around the APAR and SMART-L radars as well as the area-defence SM-2 Block IIIA and point-defence Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile (ESSM) surface-to-air missiles.

The German government contracted for three ships in June 1996 with an option on a fourth that was provisionally to have been named Thüringen, but the option for this fourth ship was not taken up. At €2.1 billion for the three ships, the class was one of the most expensive ship building programs of the German Navy.