Greece orders one more FDI frigate

Christos Koffas

On the 17^th of September 2025, the National Security Council of Greece that was assembled under the Prime Minister, the Minister of Defense and Chief of Staff decided, between others, the activation of the option for the 4^th FDI HN or Kimon class frigate for the navy. The original agreement between the state and the French government was signed in late 2022 and included 3 FDI frigates with an option for a 4^th one later with a fixed price. 

Although the time window for the activation of the option has been surpassed by far, later agreements lead to the extension of the said window and allowed the country to have time to set its defense priorities straight while also allowed the economic and defense ministries to work on the expenses of the Armed Forces from today throughout the next decade. The Minister of Defense, Nikos Dendias, had announced earlier in parliament the new 12 year plan that is set to get voted on during the next couple of months and will determine the procurements of the Armed Forces in accordance with the state’s economic capabilities as they stand today. The recently announced EU SAFE program that was announced during spring will most likely have played its part in this decision to activate the option for the 4^th frigate.

After the conclusion of the Security Council, the MoD announced the following:

“The legislative bill is already ready and will be submitted today to the Hellenic Parliament. Themistocles, I want to explain, is not simply a 4th Frigate. The main type of frigate, as agreed in 2020, was Belharra Standard 2. Themistocles is Belharra Standard 2++. It has 1 + 10 enhanced capabilities. The first is the ballistic missiles, the new type from the European Long-Range Strike Approach (ELSA) program, which is currently in the development stage. In addition, within the same framework, the previous three Frigates will also be upgraded to the ultimate Standard 2++ level.”

This statement by the MoD reveals a 3^rd and a 4^th new standard type for the FDI frigates. The Standard 1 of course is the one that will be operated by the Marine National with a total of 5 ships set to be delivered by the start of the next decade. The first frigate of the Marine National sailed out just a couple of days ago from the shipyards of Naval Group in Lorient to Brest where the company will formally deliver her to the navy.

In the below table the now 4 different standards of the FDI frigates will be presented with the information currently available to us (some differences will also be included):

As the MoD stated, the St.2++ will include 1+10 changes to the designed, from which we know only 1 and possibly 2. Of course the first one is the statement about the ELSE ballistic/cruise missile that is currently in the beginning phase which also might hint an entrance by Greece to the project, while the second addition is the long awaited Virgilus ESM that is under development between France and Italy and will become available for the FDI design frigates.

Until then, the frigates won’t have a dedicated Electronic Warfare System which opens the way for the locally designed and produced Centaur (Kentavros) C-UAS system to be added on the frigates. The system has already proven itself onboard the Meko 200 frigates of the navy during their counter terrorism missions in the Red Sea under the EU banner and the Navy plans of equipping all the surface vessels with this system in the near future.

Back to the 4^th FDI frigate now, the publicly available documents that were submitted to the parliament reveal that the frigate has already begun its construction during the summer of 2025, months before the announcement was made, and will be delivered in 2028. Currently, the shipyards of Naval Group in Lorient are simultaneously producing 4-6 frigates with all of them being in different phases of construction and 3 being on water. As the company’s president stated during the DEFEA 2025, the dry dock is available of simultaneously assembling up to 3 FDI frigates is the need occurs.
   

The name of the 4^th frigate as per the MoD, will be Themistocles after the ancient Athenian Admiral that led the combined Athenian naval forces to victory against the Persians at Salamis. Until then though, there’s another frigate between the navy ranks with the same name, an S-class frigate that is set to be retired during the following years and after the FDI frigates start taking their place in the fleet. Historically speaking, it will be the 5^th ship of the modern Hellenic Navy to carry that name. The FDI class or Kimon class frigates of the navy will have the same names of great ancient Greek Admirals as with the 4 Charles F. Adams destroyers that served with the navy during the 90s.

As things currently stand, the fleet is set to have a composition of at least 12 major surface units with 4 FDI frigates, 4 Meko Frigates and at least 4 S class frigates. During the following years the navy will have to decide on its future surface combatants with NG having already offered 3 additional frigates with local construction in Greek Shipyards and with technology transfer. The 4^th frigate will come with a 25% local industrial return which means uplifted roles for the local suppliers of NG. Today, local defense contractors supply NG with parts or ship block for both the Greek and French frigates for a total return of 12-13% of the original 3+ billion contract for 3 ships.