German Navy’s Braunschweig-class corvette FGS Magdeburg is scheduled to leave her Warnemünde navy base homeport and deploy to the UNIFIL mission in Lebanon.
FGS Magdeburg will take the place of sister ship FGS Braunschweig which spent 12 months deployed to the United Nations mission.
The corvette and her crew, led by Corvette Captain Thorsten Vögler, will set sail on May 15.
According to the German Navy, Magdeburg will be the second German Navy corvette to spend over a year on deployment after FGS Erfurt pulled off 17 months deployed to UNIFIL and the Horn of Africa from 2015 to 2016. It took a total of four crew swaps to keep Erfurt deployed for 17 months.
Now Magdeburg is also anticipating regular crew changes in line with the German Navy’s multiple crewing concept. The first crew swap is planned for October 2017.
During her time in UNIFIL, FGS Magdeburg will be under the command of Brazilian Navy Rear Admiral Sergio Fernando de Amaral Chavez Jr., working alongside units from Bangladesh, Brazil, Greece, Indonesia and Turkey.
Magdeburg is the second of five German Navy K130 corvettes. The 89 meter ship carries one 76mm multipurpose gun, two 27mm automatic guns, RAM launchers and RBS15 anti-ship missiles.