FDI Frigate

France's "digital-native" frigate — the Frégate de Défense et d'Intervention (FDI), lead ship Amiral Ronarc'h — is a 4,500-tonne multi-mission warship built around a fixed four-panel Sea Fire AESA radar, Aster air-defence and Exocet anti-ship missiles, and a cyber-hardened combat system designed in from the keel up rather than bolted on. Compact, heavily armed for its size, and conceived as the affordable, exportable workhorse of the French fleet, it entered service in 2025 — and in Greek hands has already shot down drones over the Red Sea.

Overview

The FDI (export name Belharra) is a multi-mission guided-missile frigate developed by Naval Group with Thales, designed to handle anti-air, anti-surface, anti-submarine and special-operations tasks in one compact, ~4,500-tonne hull. Its signature feature is the Sea Fire radar — a fixed, four-faced active electronically scanned array giving continuous 360° coverage without a rotating antenna — paired with Aster 15/30 surface-to-air missiles in a Sylver vertical launcher, Exocet MM40 Block 3C anti-ship missiles, a 76mm gun, MU90 anti-submarine torpedoes, and point-defence systems including Mistral for the drone threat. Just as defining is what's inside: the FDI is described as France's first "digital-native" warship, built with an integrated, cyber-protected digital architecture and two onboard data centres rather than a patchwork of separate systems. It is the modern, mid-tier complement to France's larger FREMM frigates.

Development

The FDI program was launched to give the French Navy a more affordable, flexible frigate than the high-end FREMM, suitable for both first-rate naval combat and lower-intensity intervention and presence missions. The lead ship, Amiral Ronarc'h, was built at Naval Group's Lorient shipyard, began sea trials in October 2024 and was delivered to the French Navy in 2025, per Naval Group and Defence Industry Europe. France is building five (the first three to be retrofitted from 16 to 32 Aster cells to match the later pair), and Greece ordered three under a March 2022 contract (its Kimon-class), making the FDI a Franco-Greek program. The class name Amiral Ronarc'h honours a French admiral; the design is marketed for export as Belharra.

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