Because the Neptun shipyard is working to capacity with a major order for new river cruise ships, the second naval tanker is being built at the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg.
The German Navy will receive two new, high-performance fuel tankers, which will replace the approximately 50-year-old single-hull tankers of the Rhön class after delivery. The newbuildings of the new class 707 naval fuel supply vessels (MBV) are being built in a joint project between the NVL shipyard (Lürssen) and the Meyer Werft Group.
The first 173-metre-long new tanker, which was laid down in April 2024, is being built entirely at the Neptun shipyard in Rostock, which belongs to the Meyer Group, and is due to be delivered this year.
The second newbuild, which will presumably be named “Rhön”, was also originally due to be completed at the Neptun shipyard in Rostock. In recent months, Stahlbau Nord (SBN), a company belonging to the Bremerhaven-based Rönner Group, had also supplied some steel sections for this purpose, including the bow section.
Tanker segment shifts to Meyer
These sections have now been welded together at the Neptun shipyard to form a floatable unit. However, for capacity reasons, the complete assembly of the second tanker newbuilding will no longer take place in Rostock, but in the small building dock at Meyer Werft in Papenburg.
This is because the building sites at the Neptun shipyard are urgently needed for the new river cruise newbuilds. Viking River Cruises recently ordered eight more river cruise ships from the Longship series. They are scheduled for delivery in 2027 and 2028. In addition, the shipyard is already working on an order for ten other newbuilds for Viking, which are scheduled for completion in 2025 and 2026.
Half of the tanker “Rhön” has now been transferred with tug assistance from Rostock via the Kiel Canal to Meyer Werft in Papenburg, where the tanker will be completed in the coming months. Delivery to the German Navy is scheduled for the first quarter of 2026.
The two tankers will cost more than €900 million. The main contractor is Naval Vessels Lürssen (NVL), while the Meyer Werft Group has been brought on board as a subcontractor.
The units of the new Class 707 can take around 12 million liters of fuel on board and refuel up to two warships at sea at the same time. Thanks to a modern exhaust system, the double-hull tankers emit fewer pollutants than their predecessors.
Compared to their predecessors, the newbuildings have significantly larger superstructures for accommodating up to 42 crew members and 23 embarked soldiers or passengers. There is no armament or special military equipment for cost reasons. (CE)
