Greece’s First FDI HN Frigate “HS Kimon”

On October 4th 2023, the launching ceremony of the first Hellenic ship (HS) Kimon took place in the Naval Group shipyard of Lorient. Stéphane Frémont, head of Surface Combatants at Naval Group answers our questions during this milestone event.

Dimitris Mitsopoulos, our Greece based correspondent, explains why the FDI HN are important for the Hellenic Navy.

=====================

The ceremonial launching took place in the presence of Sébastien Lecornu, French minister of the Armed Forces and his Greek counterpart, Nikolaos Dendias. The Chief Executive of the French Armament General Directorate (DGA) and his Greek counterpart, as well as the Chiefs of the French and Hellenic Navies General Staff were also attending the ceremony.

The launching of the FDI frigate Kimon is a major industrial and symbolic milestone in the FDI program for the Hellenic Navy. The contract for the procurement of three frigates, plus one optional, was signed with Grece on 24th March 2022. All three frigates are in production. The first pre-outfitted block of the second unit HS Nearchos has just been transferred into the dry dock for the keel laying, and the first steel-cutting of the third HS Formion frigate occurred on July 12th 2023. The next steps for HS Kimon are the first sea going scheduled for 2024, and the delivery in 2025.

The HS Kimon frigate is a 4,500-ton class high sea warship. Multipurpose and resilient, she features high level capabilities in all naval combat domains: anti-ship, anti-air, antisubmarine and special forces projection, with unique capabilities against asymmetric threats. She benefits from Thales’ latest innovations in radar, sonar and electronic warfare.

=====================

For new videos every week, subscribe here! http://www.youtube.com/c/NavalNews?sub_confirmation=1
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/navalnewscom
Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/navalnews
Like us on Facebook: http://fb.me/navalnewscom

Check out our daily naval defense news coverage at: https://www.navalnews.com/

NAVAL NEWS is fully focused on naval topics. We cover the latest naval defense shows & events. We also report on naval technology from all over the world. Navalnews.com is updated daily with in-depth features, industry, and naval forces news round-ups, event coverage, video reports and more. Our top of the line site is responsive across all mobile and desktop devices.

[Music] [Music] [Music] that’s hi everyone welcome to the naval group Shipyard in lauron today is an important event as the French ship Builder is hosting the launch ceremony for kimon the first Next Generation FDI frigate for the elic [Music] Navy [Music] stepan fre good afternoon good afternoon zavier you are the head of surfers combatant at Naval group what is your feeling today on this important Milestone well we are very proud as we are whenever we uh uh have a new ship at Sea and today is the the launching of the first frade for the elic Navy the HS kimon so it’s a very important day of course for Naval group what is next for Naval group regarding this program well uh next will come very soon because uh we we will put in the dry do the first section for the second frade for the elic Navy which is called the HS Naros so while we continue working on kimon we start assembling the hull for the second fre gate and regarding the kimon we will install in a few weeks from now the Pim the modular panoramic mask on board kimon to start connecting all the systems to the platform Naval group is uh building those Next Generation frate in record time how do you achieve this well we have put in place a an industrial organization which is very efficient where all operations are planned very carefully and this has allowed us to assemble the Kon free gate in less than 5 months uh and then after only 11 months in the construction Dry Dock to be able to launch the ship and we will repeat this operation we are capable of having one or two ships in our construction Dry Dock which allows delivery time between 6 and 12 months between two ships in parallel you are also conducting the outfitting for the first of class for the French navy the Admiral ronar what’s the current status of this frate well we as you said We are continuing the outfitting and preparing for the first SE goinging which will happen early 2024 and which will Mark the beginning of the SE trials for this regates uh Greece is also looking at uh new Corvettes is there anything you can share with us today that we have taken the opportunity of the presence of the alen Navy in laon to show them the going Corvette that we are currently producing for the UAE Navy and they have the opportunity to visit the ship and to appreciate uh in live the all the qualities of the [Music] ship I am now joined by nval news G based correspondent Dimitri mitos Dimitri good afternoon hiav good afternoon nice nice to be nice being here yeah indeed very very important event this ship is a big deal for the elic Navy and that’s what I wanted to discuss with you now uh in your opinion so how important are the fdn yeah it’s really important like all Greeks All Greek media reported that like it’s a very historical moment and not only historical but at the same time it’s an emotional moment because it’s been like three decades since Greece ordered The Last Ship the last modern freegate uh so this not just just a simple fate it’s one of of the most advanced ships worldwide it features an active guided missile systems h and a very Advanced Rudder that is not yet in not yet in service uh so everything will be very very modern and very Advanced and and all Greek journalist we attended here the event are very very happy also the prime the Minister of Defense said that that it’s that he was feeling very emotional being here H and the friends are really proud of this program because it’s it shows the close Co cooperation between the two countries and the two navies very well Dimitri thank you very [Music] much [Music]