The official announcement came as Greek Defense Minister Nikos Panagiotopoulos visited his French counterpart Florence Parly in Paris.
Panagiotopoulos declared to the press that there was “a long way to go” before an agreement is reached regarding the final (technical) configuration of the frigates.
As Naval News previously reported following an exclusive interview with Naval Group, the Hellenic Navy’s need is clearly for multi-mission frigates, but one deciding factor is MBDA’s Naval Cruise Missile. France is proposing the NCM as part of the FDI deal.
Combined teams of DGA, the French Navy (Marine Nationale), Thales and Naval Group started putting the new SEA FIRE radar through its pace in September at the Shore Integration Facility (SIF) located in Southern France, near Toulon.
The FDI (Frégate de Defense et d’Intervention – Intervention and Defense Frigates) is the future class of frigate on order for the French Navy. Steel cut for the first ship of the class is now on October 25, 2019.
