French defence shipbuilder the Naval Group recently confirmed that it plans to offer variants of its defence and intervention frigates (frégate de défense et d'intervention; FDIs) to the Swedish Government.
The Naval Group is offering the FDI ships in partnership with local builder Oresund Drydocks. If Sweden's acquisition of the frigates is approved, the two companies will collaborate on the provision of maintenance and support services.
The Naval Group expects the first FDI to be delivered to the Swedish Royal Navy as early as 2030.
The FDI ships in French Navy service are capable of anti-air warfare, anti-surface warfare, anti-submarine warfare, and insertion and extraction of special operations forces. Each 122-metre frigate can operate alone or as part of a naval task force and can be deployed long-term over long distances.
Armament on each ship will consist of Aster surface-to-air missiles, Exocet anti-ship missiles, torpedoes, an OTO Melara 76mm naval gun, two Nexter Narwhal remotely controlled 20mm autocannons, and a CANTO torpedo decoy countermeasures launcher.
The FDI ships have also been developed for export. Specifically, three examples of the FDI HN variant, alternately known as the Kimon-class, have been tailored to the requirements of the Hellenic Navy.
