Saab Takes a SEK 8.7 Billion TKMS Order to Equip Germany's Four F128 Frigates
Stockholm, 16 July 2026
Key points
- Saab signed a contract with TKMS worth approximately SEK 8.7 billion — around EUR 790 million by trade-press conversion — to equip four of the German Navy's new MEKO A-200 DEU frigates, the class Germany designates F128
- The scope covers the 9LV combat system including combat management and fire control, the Sea Giraffe 4A Fixed Face and Sea Giraffe 1X radars, passive sensors and the composite superstructures; deliveries run 2029 to 2032, with an option to equip additional ships
- The F128 is the line Berlin substituted for the cancelled F126: the Damen programme was terminated on 24 June and the Bundestag budget committee approved roughly EUR 6.3 billion for four TKMS ships on 8 July
- The suite matches the one Saab is installing under the F123 mid-life upgrade ordered in 2021 — ten German anti-submarine hulls converging on a Swedish combat system
Saab has signed a contract with TKMS worth approximately SEK 8.7 billion to deliver and integrate the combat systems, sensors and composite superstructures for four of the German Navy's new MEKO A-200 DEU anti-submarine frigates — the first major supplier contract on the programme Germany designates F128.
The order, announced by Saab on 16 July, packages the 9LV combat system — combat management and fire control — with the Sea Giraffe 4A Fixed Face long-range surveillance radar, the lightweight Sea Giraffe 1X, passive sensors and composite superstructure sections. Deliveries run from 2029 to 2032, with German trade reporting placing the first ship in December 2029, and the contract carries an option for equipping additional frigates. Notably, the counterparty is the shipbuilder: where Saab's F123 modernisation was ordered directly by the procurement office BAAINBw, this contract flows through TKMS as prime.
The programme it equips barely existed a month ago. Berlin terminated the slipping Damen-led F126 on 24 June in favour of up to eight of TKMS's in-production MEKO A-200 design; the Bundestag budget committee released roughly EUR 3.15 billion of a EUR 6.3 billion four-ship envelope on 8 July; the combat-system contract followed eight days later. Roughly an eighth of the four-ship budget now flows to Sweden through this single order.
The consolidation beneath the substitution. The suite Saab will fit to the F128 is, line for line, the one it is installing on the four F123 frigates under the 2021 mid-life upgrade — 9LV, Sea Giraffe 4A, Sea Giraffe 1X. Ten German anti-submarine hulls will run a Swedish combat system while the hulls themselves stay German-built: sovereign at the yard, Swedish at the combat system — the de facto standardisation Großwald Signal No. 105 read as the quiet consequence of the F126's collapse. The speed is the tell: a combat-system decision this large, placed without contest three weeks after cancellation, was only possible because the F123 upgrade had already made 9LV the incumbent.
Related · Germany's F126 to F128 substitution
Germany approves four F128 MEKO A-200 DEU frigates to replace the F126 (2 July 2026)
Germany cancels the F126 for up to eight MEKO A-200 DEU from TKMS (24 June 2026)