{"id":42839,"date":"2026-06-24T23:17:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T23:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/42839\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T23:17:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T23:17:07","slug":"germany-nixes-multi-billion-dollar-f126-frigate-program-opts-for-mekos-instead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/42839\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany nixes multi-billion-dollar F126 frigate program, opts for MEKOs instead"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON \u2014 Germany <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bmvg.de\/de\/presse\/projekt-fregatte-f126-wird-beendet-6115980\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">announced today<\/a> it is axing plans to build six F126 frigates after suffering delays with the program and expected cost increases stemming from a potential change in contractors.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, the defense ministry said it wants to purchase eight MEKO frigates to conduct <a href=\"https:\/\/breakingdefense.com\/2026\/05\/netherlands-eyes-more-jassm-weapons-for-f-35-discloses-asw-frigate-delivery-delay\/\" id=\"https:\/\/breakingdefense.com\/2026\/05\/netherlands-eyes-more-jassm-weapons-for-f-35-discloses-asw-frigate-delivery-delay\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">anti-submarine warfare<\/a> and satisfy NATO requirements, according to a translation of its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bmvg.de\/de\/presse\/projekt-fregatte-f126-wird-beendet-6115980\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Dutch shipbuilder Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding (DSNS) originally secured a roughly \u20ac10 billion ($11.4 billion) contract in 2020 to build six F126 frigates, and was supposed to deliver the initial vessel with an initial capability in 2028. All the vessels were slated for delivery to the German Navy by 2033, the ministry said.<\/p>\n<p>However, the ministry said DSNS disclosed that it had encountered major delays, and that constructing the ships within those dates and budget wasn\u2019t viable. While the ministry evaluated changing contractors to Naval Vessels L\u00fcrssen B.V. &amp; Co. KG (NVL) last year, a review found that the switch wouldn\u2019t be cheap. Specifically, shifting to NVL would have cost more than \u20ac18 billion for the six frigates, after factoring in services provided under the DSNS contract.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Likewise, Germany\u2019s government would have had to waive possible damage claims against DSNS if it switched contractors, and the ministry didn\u2019t believe that was using budget funds responsibly. Meanwhile, a legal review is underway into these claims, according to the ministry.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>All these factors prompted the ministry to cancel the F126 program, and instead seek to purchase eight MEKO A-200 DEU frigates built by German shipbuilder ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS), pending approval from the budget committee.\u00a0The MEKU A-200 is 121 meters (nearly 400 feet) long, displaces just under 4,000 tones and can travel over 29 knots (33.4 mph), according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tkmsgroup.com\/surface-vessels\/frigates\/meko-a-200\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">TKMS<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Berlin\u2019s Inspector of the Navy conducted a review and concluded that these frigates met both German Navy and NATO requirements. Purchasing the first four MEKO frigates would cost roughly \u20ac6.3 billion, with the option to purchase another four for roughly \u20ac5.3 billion by the end of this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>DSNS did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Breaking Defense. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 Germany announced today it is axing plans to build six F126 frigates after suffering delays with&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42840,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[36990,151,22423,22424,5,1202,36991,5273,153],"class_list":["post-42839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-germany","tag-anti-submarine-warfare","tag-europe","tag-f126","tag-frigate","tag-germany","tag-global","tag-meko-a-200-ship","tag-navy","tag-netherlands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}