Germany's F128 Frigate Submission — Four MEKO A-200 DEU for EUR 6.63 Billion — Pulled From the Budget Committee

A week after scrapping F126, the ministry prepared a parliamentary submission for a first batch of four MEKO A-200 DEU frigates at about EUR 6.63 billion gross, with an option for a second batch of four at around EUR 5.3 billion exercisable by year-end and first delivery slated for December 2029. The specialist outlet Hartpunkt puts the figure some 70 per cent above earlier estimates and breaks it down: halving the batch from eight ships to four adds over EUR 130 million per hull; previously unbudgeted strike-length vertical-launch cells add about 15 per cent; more than EUR 100 million is subcontractor price increases; only some EUR 80 million is new navy requirements, mainly counter-drone.

The industrial map is redrawn. TKMS is prime, with hulls at Stahlbau Nord, Saab supplying the 9LV combat system and radar integration, Atlas Elektronik the towed sonar and Kongsberg the Naval Strike Missile. Absent is the entire F126 team — Rheinmetall's NVL yard, German Naval Yards, Thales, Hensoldt and Rohde und Schwarz — though TKMS chief Oliver Burkhard has indicated some could return as subcontractors.

Then the submission slipped, briefly. It was withdrawn from the budget committee's agenda over the weekend of 4–5 July after coalition MPs raised doubts about the smaller ship's suitability for its core anti-submarine task. The navy's own inspector has certified after examination that the MEKO A-200 DEU meets the anti-submarine requirement and would fulfil NATO obligations, and on 8 July — the committee's last session before the summer recess — the four-ship buy was approved at about EUR 6.3 billion, with conditions attached: quarterly reporting, cost control, reconsidering former F126 subcontractors, and holding the December 2029 first-delivery date.

The proprietary read. The cost decomposition changes the read: the single biggest driver of the 70 per cent is not delay or inflation but Berlin's own decision to buy only half the batch — the state paying a premium for its own optionality — and a further slice buys strike-length cells the F126 never carried, capability rather than overrun. As Signal No. 95 noted, programme failure still carries industrial consequences: every major F126 contractor is out, replaced by the chain that already builds the A-200 for export. The pulled submission adds a second question — whether the design the navy has cleared can survive the coalition's own doubt before the recess.