MEKO 200 Frigate Mild-Life Upgrade (MLU) programmes worldwide

Written by D-Mitch

MEKO 200 frigates HMNZS Te Mana, HMAS Parramatta and
HMAS Perth during the International Fleet Review 2013

The MEKO 200 is a frigate (FFG) design by the German shipyard Blohm+Voss as part of the MEKO family of warships. Ten MEKO 200 frigates were built to the Anzac-class design; eight for the Royal Australian Navy (first ship entered service in 1993), and two for the Royal New Zealand Navy (first ship entered service in 1994). Eight MEKO 200TN frigates were acquired by Turkey in three different tracks: four Track I/Yavuz vessels (first ship in 1987), two Track IIA/Barbaros class vessels (first ship in 1997) and two Track IIB/Barbaros (Salihreis subclass) vessels (first ship in 1998). Portugal acquired three MEKO 200PN/Vasco da Gama class (first ship commissioned in 1991) and Greece four MEKO 200HN/Hydra class (first ship commissioned in 1992). Total 25 vessels of seven (7) configurations! This article focuses on the Mild-Life Upgrade (MLU) programmes that are implemented on the MEKO 200 classes worldwide, of which some of them have change completely the appearance of the ships.

FLEETS #13: French Navy, Portuguese Navy and Finnish Navy today

Written by D-Mitch

This is the fifth article about various countries' navies today. In these articles, I briefly describe a country's naval fleet by reporting the ships in each type/category of warships and by providing a nice image where all the types of warships are illustrated and the units of its class are reported. I include the vessels that will enter in service this year and I have excluded those that are about to be decommissioned. I deliberately excluded many classes of auxiliary ships; those that they have "0" defence capacity and those that have secondary roles such as hydrographic survey ships, tugs, depollution vessels and training ships.

Karel Doorman (M) class frigates of the Portuguese Navy, Chilean Navy, Royal Netherlands Navy and Belgian Navy

Written by D-Mitch

Modernized frigate Van Spejik
Photo: Willem Harlaar

Frigate Bartolomeu_Dias
Photo: Jimmy C. Pan, US Navy

The Karel Doorman class is a class of eight (8) frigates built by Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding, the former Royal Schelde Dockyard, for the Royal Netherlands Navy (Koninklijke Marine) and they were commissioned in the period 1991-1995.  International interest in the M-frigates as well as changes in the Royal Netherlands Navy prompted the sale of two frigates each to Chile, Belgium and Portugal. Therefore, in 2004, Tjerk Hiddes and Abraham van der Hulst were sold to Chilean Navy (Armada de Chile) and renamed Almirante Riveros and Blanco Encalada respectively. In 2005, Karel Doorman and Willem van der Zaan were sold to Belgian Navy - Belgian Naval Component (Dutch: Marinecomponent, French: Composante marine, German: Marinekomponente) and renamed Leopold I and Louise-Marie respectively. The next year, Portuguese Navy (Marinha Portuguesa) purchased two vessels of the class, Van Nes and Van Galen which renamed Bartolomeu Dias and Francisco de Almeida respectively. The Dutch together with the Belgians decided to upgrade their frigates by rebuilding both hangar and helicopter deck to accommodate the NH-90 helicopter as well as to replace the forward mast for fitting a new phased array surface search radar and an electro-optical surveillance system. The Dutch and Belgian frigates followed also an extensive overhaul and Service Life Extension Programs (SLEP) to their equipment. These will be referred as the Karel Doorman Mod. (modernized) frigates to be distinguished from the non-modernized ones. Note that in 2018 the Portuguese Navy decided to modernize its two Karel Doorman class frigates (Mid-life update), the first frigate started modernization in 2018 and being completed by 2020, the second frigate will start modernizing in 2020 and will be completed by 2022.