On December 15, at a festive ceremony in Bremerhaven, Germany, the German company thyssenkrupp Marine Systems unveiled the third Meko A200EN frigate"Kader" (909).Delivered to the Egyptian Navy, the ceremony was attended by high-ranking representatives from the Egyptian and German Navies. Project Sword
Oliver Burkhard, CEO of thyssenkrupp Marine Systems, emphasized:"Just six months after the delivery of the second frigate, Qajal (905), today another state-of-the-art frigate was successfully delivered to the Egyptian Navy. The handover marked the official completion of all ship construction in Germany, and all in record time. The fourth frigate will be completed at the Alexandria shipyard in close cooperation with thyssenkrupp Marine Systems".
Production work on the Kader frigate began with the first steel cutting in the fall of 2020, followed by the laying of the keel in March 2021, its launch in April 2022 and its naming in October 2022. A few days after the ceremony, the frigate "Kader" will set sail for Alexandria, Egypt.
Vice Admiral Ashraf Ibrahim Atwa, Commander-in-Chief of the Egyptian Navy, said:"In just 14 months, the Egyptian Navy received three Meko A200EN frigates INS Aziz (904), INS Qahar (905) and INS Kader (909). These numerous handover visits are tangible proof of cooperation and friendship between the Arab Republic of Egypt and the Federal Republic of Germany. The Egyptian Navy is proud to have acquired the Meko A200EN type escort, and thyssenkrupp Marine Systems must also be proud to build these frigates.
Just a few days ago, at the Egyptian defense exhibition EDEX 2023 in Cairo, the fourth Meko A200EN frigate "Jabbar" (910) was launched, which is expected to be delivered in October 2025.
In 2018, the Egyptian Ministry of Defense signed a contract with the German company ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems to order four Meko A200EN frigates with a total value of about $2.3 billion. The contract provides for the production of the first three frigates by thyssenkrupp Marine Systems in Germany, and the fourth in cooperation with the Alexander shipyard to be built in Egypt itself, and the first three frigates of German production have now been fully delivered.
The MKOO A200EN frigate is an Egyptian version designed based on the MEKO 200 frigate family, which has been exported to 8 countries around the world since its launch in 1987 and is an evergreen and hot-selling model in the world's leading market.
The Meko A200EN frigate has a total length of 118 meters and a width of 148 meters, draft 43 meters, full load displacement of 3,700 tons, full crew of 120 people, diesel fuel combined power propulsion system (CODAG), powered by 1 General Electric LM2500 gas turbine and 2 MTU 16B 1163 TB93 diesel engines, with a total power of 42,880 hp (31,840 kW), a maximum speed of 28 knots, and a maximum range of 7,200 nautical miles (cruising at 16 knots).
The main ** of the Meko A200EN frigate is 1 Otto Melera 127 mm naval gun;4 groups of 8 units with a total of 32 cells of vertical launch systems, loaded with 32 Mika anti-aircraft missiles;2 4-pack anti-ship missile launchers, loaded with 8 MM40 BLOCK3 Exocet anti-ship missiles;2 Oerlikon 20mm remote control stations;2 twin 324-mm torpedo tubes, loaded with MU90 and DM2A4 anti-submarine torpedoes;There is a *** deck in the stern of the ship, and the hangar can accommodate 2 anti-submarine *** and 1 UAV.
The main radar is a Thales NS-110 4D Active Electronic Scanner Array (AESA) radar, which is an upgraded version of the NS-100 3D radar and the same radar of the British Type 31 frigate, working in the S-band, with a theoretical maximum detection range of 400 km;1 Seat Thales Stir 12 EO Mk2 fire control radar, operating in the I-band and K-band, with a maximum detection range of 120 km (I-band) and 36 km (K-band);It integrates the Thales "Scorpion" 2 electronic warfare system, the decoy launcher of the C310 high-performance anti-torpedo countermeasure system, the Asrat hull sonar and the low-frequency towed array sonar.