France pushes to procure three more frigates for Marine Nationale

Paris: Following Euro-Atlantic turmoil and tough geopolitical context induced by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the French Minister of the Armed Forces Sebastien Lecornu affirmed over the weekend the necessity to upgrade the current fleet composition of the French Navy (Marine Nationale): Pending funding and parliamentary approval, three additional frigates would be ordered to bring the number of “first rank” surface combatants from 15 to 18 ships.

This target of 15 first-rank frigates dates back to the 2013 strategic plan delivered by the MoD, which set out the Armies’ format, including that of the French Navy. This target was met in 2022 with the delivery of the latest FREMM ‘Lorraine‘. In this figure of 15 surface combatants, the French Navy includes 8 FREMM (6 specialized in ASW and 2 in Air Defense), 2 Horizon-type Air Defense destroyers and the 5 La Fayette-class frigates. The later were not conceived as first-rank ships when they were designed and commissioned. This means that, despite mid-life updates, their armament and capabilities are not in line with those of their big sisters, the FREMMs.

The Five FDIs currently on order will eventually replace the La Fayette frigates. Much more powerful (both in terms and weapons and sensor systems), these ships are true first-rank surface combatants. However, even with the arrival of the 5 FDIs by 2032, the fleet composition of the Marine Nationale will remain at 15 “first rank” ships, although it will have been greatly modernized.

Largely engaged on numerous fronts requiring first-rank ships, such as the ongoing Clemenceau 25 mission to escort the carrier strike group in the Indo-Pacific, NATO commitments in the North Sea, national missions in the Atlantic, European mission in the Red Sea, the French Navy tries to manage all these operations as best it can with the number of ships it has, while protecting its backbone: the nuclear deterrent implemented by SSBNs. For the moment, it’s reaching its objectives by achieving a very high availability rate for its ships. However, it is strongly constrained by the limited number of hulls it possesses and cannot operate on all fronts.

In the current geopolitical context, Sebastien Lecornu admitted on a local TV channel that the format of the French Armed Forces is a bit short and there is a pressing need to speed up rearmament in all fields in order to prepare for “high intensity” conflict.

“We need to speed up our rearmament: the number of frigates we have – 15 – is a bit short. We are on a frame of just over 200 fighter jets, so we’re certainly short of thirty or so. I think there are corrections to be made when the time comes.”

This plan to push for a larger Navy format is definitely here as the MoD reiterated this necessity of increasing the number of first-ranked frigates from 15 to 18 in a LinkedIn post two weeks after his TV interview:

“In order to face threats over time and in potential multiple theaters, we must further increase our strength. For the Marine Nationale, [this means to] increase from 15 to 18 frigates.”

As one can imagine, the financial question arises and the minister seems to be fully aware of it. He mentions the latter without having a solution for the moment, but seems trying to move the lines in public opinion, and stakeholders such as banks, public and private investment funds to finance this budgetary effort. On March 20, an event will be organized on “war finances” with the Ministry of Economy and Finances, the objective of which is to bring together private investors (banks, investment funds) and defense companies, to finance the rearmament effort.

If additional funds are committed to the French Navy, three additional FDI will very likely be ordered. It is still too early to know what the configuration of these ships will be: 16 VLS as on the five Amiral Ronarc’h-class FDIs on order for the French Navy or 32 VLS as on the three Kimon-class on order for the Hellenic Navy.