The German Navy recently shared a video of its giant 7,000-ton frigate FGS Baden-Württemberg conducting further firing tests.
This is the second video of the lead ship of a new class of F 125 frigates firing its weapons in the North Sea’s Helgoland shooting range.
The previous one showed the Baden-Württemberg testing its guns and close-in weapon systems.
This time, we are treated to the frigate’s RAM and Harpoon missile firings. The RAM (short for Rolling Airframe Missile) is guided missile weapon system used for ship self-defense. The Harpoon is an over-the-horizon, anti-ship missile system.
Firings of the RAM start at 2:00 while fast forwarding to 3:50 of the video will bring you to a cool slow motion of the Harpoon missile launch. The frigate’s crew launched a total of four RAM and one Harpoon missile during this test.
With this test, the Baden-Württemberg certified her weapon systems and is now set for further functional tests before being officially transferred to the German Navy this summer.
F 125 frigates are a new class of ships set to replace the eight Bremen-Class frigates currently in service with the German Navy.
The four frigates are comparable to destroyers in size and are, with a length of 149 meters and a displacement of 7000 tonnes, the biggest operational ships in the German Navy.
According to the German Navy, the new frigates require only half the crew necessary to operate the Bremen-Class frigates. They will be able to stay at sea for up to 24 months and thereby reduce the transit times for the crews. The crews will swap in regular intervals directly in the areas of operations which means that the ships will have to make fewer port visits.