The French Navy is to receive another so-called intervention frigate of the FDI type. The Naval Group shipyard has confirmed a corresponding order.
The French Defense Procurement Agency has ordered a fifth FDI-class ship. The last order for a newbuild of the series was placed in December 2025.
“With these orders for the FDI frigates 4 and 5 for France, the Ministry of Defense reaffirms its confidence in us to complete the series of defense and intervention frigates. We are thus fully mobilized to provide the French Navy with the means to achieve naval supremacy in the service of French sovereignty,” said Pierre Éric Pommellet, Chairman and CEO of Naval Group. The fourth and fifth French units built in Lorient, together with the four FDI frigates destined for the Greek Navy, bring the total production of this series to nine ships.
They are “first-rate frigates with proven capabilities in all combat areas: Air defense, anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare and asymmetric threats”, including supersonic missiles and cyber-attacks. To this end, the FDI frigate is equipped with advanced digital technologies and data processing systems.
The navigational capabilities in different sea areas were demonstrated during the first sea trials (14 weeks so far) of the “Admiral Ronarc’h”, whose crew was able to observe its performance in sea state 6 in the Atlantic.
