In the presence of numerous guests, construction number eight of the German Navy’s K130 corvette class was ceremoniously christened “Karlsruhe” at the Blohm+Voss shipyard in Hamburg on May 7. The third of a total of five new K130 corvettes is now being fitted out as planned.
The “Karlsruhe” will also be commissioned in Hamburg at a later date and will undergo its functional checks and acceptance tests from there. Flotilla Admiral Andreas Czerwinski, Head of the Maritime Division of the Federal Office of Bundeswehr Equipment, Information Technology and In-Service Support Bundeswehr (BAAINBw), emphasized on the occasion of the christening: “This excellent team spirit, the intensive expert work in joint working groups and, of course, the joint risk management are still an indispensable and success-determining factor for this project.” The christening was a really good and visible step forward in the project, he said happily in the presence of Vice Admiral Jan Christian Kaack, the Inspector of the Navy, and the christening sponsor, Karlsruhe’s First Mayor, Mayoress Gabriele Luczak-Schwarz.
The Braunschweig-class corvettes are equipped with state-of-the-art technology, particularly in the areas of ship technology and weapon and command systems. Many systems on board are automated and important components are duplicated. Thanks to their stealth characteristics, the corvettes are difficult to locate. In addition to their own multi-purpose radar, they benefit from their powerful video sensors just under water. They can also deploy helicopter drones, which means that the area they can control extends beyond the radar horizon.
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