The German Navy Baden-Württemberg Type 125-class frigate tested her technical systems under extreme climatic conditions and in realistic combat situations. She left for Brazil on February 7 to test the on-board facilities and equipment near the equator, and returned here on April 16. In order to find out whether a new warship can also withstand the requirements in hot areas of operation and at the same time as expected under realistic conditions, the cooling systems must also go through various test programs before they are actually used. The Baden-Württemberg traveled a total of around 13,500 nautical miles on its journey to Brazil and back.
The current results from waters off the Brazilian coast have now confirmed that the systems of the “Baden-Württemberg” are resilient even under extreme conditions. The class 125 frigates are basically designed for outside air temperatures between minus 15 and plus 45 degrees Celsius and for water temperatures from just below zero to over 30 degrees. The counterpart to hot water testing is cold water testing, which “Baden-Württemberg” had previously completed. Cold and hot water testing belong to several steps of the operational test for the ship.
The F125 Baden-Württemberg-class frigates are a series of frigates of the German Navy, which were designed and constructed by ARGE F125, a joint-venture of Thyssen-Krupp and Lürssen. The Baden-Württemberg class have the highest displacement of any class of frigate worldwide. They are to replace the Bremen class. Other important requirements are long maintenance periods: It should be possible to deploy Baden-Württemberg-class frigates for up to two years away from homeports with an average sea operation time of more than 5,000 hours per year (that’s nearly 60%) which includes operation under tropical conditions.
