French shipbuilder the Naval Group has begun conducting sea trials of the Hellenic Navy's second FDI HN frigate.
Like her earlier sister HS Kimon, the future HS Nearchos is a variant of the defence and intervention frigate (frégate de défense et d'intervention; FDI) designed by the Naval Group for the French Navy. She belongs to the FDI HN class, alternately known as the Kimon-class, which was developed specifically to satisfy the Hellenic Navy’s operational requirements.
The FDI HNs, similar to the baseline FDIs, were built to be capable of anti-air warfare, anti-surface warfare, anti-submarine warfare, and insertion and extraction of special operations forces. Each frigate can operate alone or as part of a naval task force and can be deployed long-term over long distances.
The Naval Group said that, like the FDIs, the FDI HNs are among the first frigates to benefit from an onboard digital architecture that will enable them to adapt continuously to technological and operational developments, thus allowing them to cope with constantly evolving threats.
Each FDI HN is also natively protected against cyber threats, with a redundant IT architecture based around two data centres that host a large proportion of the ship's software in what the Naval Group said is a “virtualised” manner.
The future Nearchos has a displacement of 4,500 tonnes, a length of approximately 122 metres, a beam of 18 metres, a crew complement of 125 including aviation personnel, and a combined diesel and diesel propulsion arrangement that will deliver a maximum speed of 27 knots and a range of 5,000 nautical miles at a cruising speed of 15 knots.
The ship's armament will include Aster and RAM surface-to-air missiles, Exocet anti-ship missiles, MU90 torpedoes, a Leonardo/OTO Melara 76mm rapid fire naval gun, and two Oerlikon 20mm cannon fitted on Leonardo remote weapon stations.
Nearchos and Kimon will initially be fitted with 16 surface-to-air missile launch cells each, similar to the baseline FDIs. Before the end of the decade, the two frigates will each have 16 additional launch cells for a total of 32, thus greatly expanding their air and missile defence capabilities.
Aviation facilities will be available for use by a 10-tonne utility helicopter and an unmanned aerial vehicle.