Germany Approves €6.3 Billion for Four MEKO A-200 (F128) Anti-Submarine Frigates
Germany's Bundestag Budget Committee cleared roughly €6.3 billion on July 8, 2026 to buy four TKMS MEKO A-200 frigates, designated the F128 class, restoring anti-submarine capability after the cancelled F126 program.
Germany's Bundestag Budget Committee approved roughly €6.3 billion ($7.2 billion) on July 8, 2026 for four MEKO A-200 frigates, which the German Navy will operate as the F128 class, according to The Defense Post and Naval News.
The contract goes to ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS), with a parliamentary option for four additional ships worth about €5.3 billion that could grow the class to eight hulls for some €11.6 billion. The first frigate is scheduled for delivery in December 2029, followed by one ship roughly every nine months.
The approximately 3,950-tonne, 121-meter design is optimized for anti-submarine warfare. It carries bow and towed-array sonars, MU90 lightweight torpedoes and an NH90 Sea Tiger helicopter fitted with dipping sonar, and is built to shadow Russian submarines in the North Atlantic. Saab has already been contracted to supply the combat management system. TKMS chief executive Oliver Burkhard said the yard was "aware of our responsibility to build these ships very quickly due to the security situation."
The F128 order is a recovery from the collapse of the larger F126 program, which Berlin cancelled in June 2026, citing cost escalation and delays. Officials chose the export-proven MEKO A-200 — variants of which already serve with South Africa, Algeria and Egypt — for its lower cost, faster delivery and reduced technical risk while retaining the anti-submarine mission the navy had sought from the F126.
For the German Navy, the decision locks in a mid-term frigate plan that had been thrown into doubt for months, and reflects Berlin's broader post-2022 push to rebuild high-end naval capability against a resurgent Russian submarine force. The procurement is recorded in GlobalMilitary.net's naval events timeline.
Attention now turns to whether Germany exercises the four-ship option and to how quickly TKMS can hold the December 2029 in-service date, a schedule the government has stressed is central to closing the gap left by the retiring Brandenburg-class frigates.
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