On March 31, 2026, the French Government defence procurement and technology agency (DGA) ordered a fifth Defence and Intervention Frigate (FDI) from the industrial group Naval Group, intended for the French Navy.<\/p>\n
The FDI program, led by the French Government defence procurement and technology agency (DGA), was launched in 2017. It notably strengthens surface forces with top-tier, versatile, state-of-the-art vessels at the forefront of technology and innovation.<\/p>\n
The first FDI, Amiral Ronarc\u2019h, was delivered to the French Navy on October 17, 2025, and is currently undergoing its long-term deployment; the remaining deliveries will be spread from 2027 to 2032.<\/p>\n
These frigates are versatile high-sea vessels capable of operating in all domains: anti-ship warfare, anti-air warfare, anti-submarine warfare, asymmetric threat countermeasures, cyber defence, and special forces projection. They are designed for high-intensity combat and are equipped with substantial armament: Exocet MM40 B3c anti-ship missiles, Aster 15 and 30 anti-air missiles, MU90 torpedoes, 20 mm and 76 mm artillery.<\/p>\n
\u00a0They can simultaneously embark a helicopter, a drone and accommodate a special forces detachment with two commando boats. Fully digital, the FDI feature a cyber-secured and redundant data center hosting the applications necessary for their operation and combat system functionality. Equipped with significant computing capabilities, these digital fortresses can process a substantial volume of information from the various onboard sensors.<\/p>\n
In terms of operational innovation, the FDI is the first ship to natively feature a dedicated management station for combating asymmetric threats, designed to counter air and surface attacks; notably mini-drones and suicide boats. This station is separated from the operations center (CO), which is responsible for all other combat domain.<\/p>\n
The FDI is equipped with a single mast housing all airborne sensors, enabling continuous 360\u00b0 surveillance. As the first vessel of the French Navy to be fitted with Thales\u2019 fixed-panel SEAFIRE radar, it boasts the most advanced sonars and its anti-air and anti-surface surveillance is ensured by the most modern sensors, capable of countering the most advanced threats.<\/p>\n
The FDI is already a success on the export market, with the vessel recognised by its owner nations for its high levels of performance.<\/p>\n
Source DGA<\/p>\n
Photo courtesy Naval Group<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On March 31, 2026, the French Government defence procurement and technology agency (DGA) ordered a fifth Defence and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2068,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2107,1853,5,1855],"class_list":{"0":"post-2067","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-dga","9":"tag-fdi","10":"tag-france","11":"tag-naval-group"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}