The Navantia shipyard in Ferrol (A Coruña) has hosted last Wednesday 9th August the keel laying ceremony for the F111 frigate, whose construction began in April 2022 and which is the first of the series of five new generation frigates for the Navy.
This milestone of the program has taken place in the presence of the Admiral Chief of Staff of the Navy, Antonio Piñeiro, accompanied by the president of Navantia, Ricardo Domínguez and the director of the business of Frigates and Intervention Ships, Eduardo Dobarro.
The act consisted of placing block 311 in Tier 2 of the Ferrol facilities, on which the rest of the ship will grow. With this important event, Navantia continues to advance in the construction of the five frigates in this series.
It is expected that this ship will be launched in 2025, with its delivery to the Navy proceeding in 2028. The delivery of the rest of the ships will have a cadence of 12 months, until 2032, the date on which the Navy will receive the fifth unit.
The F110 program is fully in its construction phase, with production proceeding ahead of schedule. To date, 18 of the 33 blocks that will make up the new F111 are in the manufacturing process, with a degree of maturity of the 3D model of detailed engineering of around 80% and 99% of the platform equipment having been purchased. for all ships in the series.
“The F-110 program is a vital project for the Navy, which will result in the necessary replacement of the “Santa María” class frigates, while complementing the capacity of our F-100 as basic elements for the development of the rest. of the Fleet’s capabilities. This transition has been possible thanks to the excellent collaborative relationship between the Navy and Navantia, which has endured through decades of working together in a common interest in the search for excellence in shipbuilding.”
Admiral Chief of Staff of the Navy, Antonio Piñeiro
Navantia has activated an acceleration plan for the construction program, which was launched by fine-tuning the production systems with a pilot block and which has materialized in the advancement of this keel laying. Before the end of the year, the manufacture of the F112 will begin.
“The F110 is a transformative lever for our entire industrial and technological ecosystem. If this Ferrol shipyard is already a world reference in the construction of frigates, this program will place it at the technological and industrial vanguard, with the upcoming construction of the digital block factory and the Digital Twin Center of Excellence”
President of Navantia, Ricardo Domínguez.
The F110 program will sustain around 9,000 jobs over a 10-year period, taking into account both direct and indirect employment and employment induced by economic activity. Around 500 companies from all over Spain participate in it.
Five ships plus a digital twin
The F110 frigate program, whose execution order was signed in 2019, contemplates the construction of five units for a value of 4,325 million euros. These are multi-purpose escort ships, with anti-aircraft, anti-surface and anti-submarine capabilities and can operate in combination with other units. They are versatile ships that can also perform functions related to maritime security and support to civil authorities.
The F110 is a qualitative leap from the point of view of the capabilities of the Navy and the industrial and technological potential of Navantia and all its collaborating industry. Thus, it contributes to Spain’s strategic autonomy and to having a cutting-edge industrial and technological base, while opening up new export opportunities.
The program incorporates the Digital Twin, an innovative concept that will make the Ferrol shipyard an international reference in terms of frigates. The Digital Twin, designed in close collaboration with the Navy and the General Directorate of Armament and Materiel (DGAM) of the Ministry of Defence, is a virtual replica of the ship that is fed back in useful time with information on the ship, the data supplied permanently by a network of sensors distributed throughout the ship, constituting a cyber-physical system that through the use of behavior models and technologies such as Cloud Computing, Machine Learning or the Internet of Things (IoT) allows to support its maintenance and operation even thousands of miles away. distance through the Digital Twin deployed on the ground.
