On February 8, the frigate “Hessen” of the German Armed Forces is launched in Wilhelmshaven. Bundeswehr to the Mediterranean. Subject to an EU and national mandate, it will take part in the international mission “Eunavfor Aspides” to protect merchant shipping and ensure freedom of navigation in the Red Sea.
The “Hessen” will set sail with a crew of around 240 soldiers. In addition to the actual regular crew, this includes the flight operations team for two Sea Lynx helicopters as well as other operational personnel such as a medical team, soldiers from the naval battalion and a military pastor. “A potential deployment in the Red Sea will be another endurance test for the ship and crew,” says frigate captain Volker Kübsch, the ship’s commander. “We have tested the motivation of the crew and the operational capability of the ship as part of the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (Maritime) as NATO’s maritime spearhead in the North and Baltic Seas. in the North and Baltic Seas over the past six months. However, the events of the past weeks and months in the Red Sea also make it clear that this operation will have a completely different character. The threat there is no longer abstract, it is very real and consists of a large number of weapons that are regularly deployed there. I know only too well the capabilities of the ship and the crew and would therefore like to ease the concerns of all friends and family of the crew. You can rely on us in every respect,” continues the commander. https://militaeraktuell.at/fregatte-hessen-hochmodern-hochgefaehrlich/ Background information on the F124 frigate
The German Navy has a total of three Sachsen-class frigates. They are designed as multi-purpose ships for convoy protection and sea-space control. Their main focus is air defense: With its SMART-L radar (Signal Multibeam Acquisition Radar for Tracking, L band), a single Sachsen-class unit can, for example, monitor the airspace over the entire North Sea. The Sachsen-class radar is capable of detecting more than 1,000 targets simultaneously. If necessary, the SM2 anti-aircraft missiles from the Mk41 VLS (Vertical Launching System) vertical launch system of the Sachsen class can reach over 160 kilometers. All sensors and weapons on board are optimized for this main task of air defence. The computer heart of the Sachsen class is the command and weapon deployment system (FüWES) with powerful computing power: it processes all the data from the radars and other sensors as well as the information supplied by allied ships. The system is redundantly distributed across more than a dozen computers on board. Thanks to its good communication system with radio and satellite links, the Sachsen class is also capable of guiding several other warships at the same time. The on-board helicopters of the Sachsen class are used for long-range hunting of submarines. With these capabilities, the Class 124 frigates have been integrated into United States Navy aircraft carrier battle groups in the North Atlantic on several occasions.
Here for further reports on the Bundeswehr.
