The Defence Commission of the French National Assembly recently confirmed that the final two defence and intervention frigates (FDI) to be built for the French Navy will each have 32 vertical launch system (VLS) cells for housing Aster surface-to-air missiles.
Each new FDI's Aster missile capacity will therefore be double that of recently delivered class lead ship Amiral Ronarc'h and the second and third ships in the class, thus giving them enhanced air defence capability.
The 32-cell VLS is already being incorporated on each of the three FDI HN ships, which are variants of the FDI being built for the Hellenic Navy.
The baseline FDIs in French Navy service have been configured with only 16 VLS cells each, partly due to budget constraints. This is despite the ships' hulls being designed from the outset to be capable of accommodating additional missile cells if needed.
French shipbuilder the Naval Group has yet to start work on the fourth and fifth FDIs whereas the second and third ships Amiral Louzeau and Amiral Castex are under various stages of construction.
