Tamandaré-class frigate


The Tamandaré class are a new class of future general purpose frigates for the Brazilian Navy, based on the MEKO family of ships. The project is being developed by the Ministry of Defence and the Águas Azuis consortium, composed of Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems, Embraer Defense and Security, Atech and the Oceana shipyard. The construction of the four planned frigates will begin in 2021 and are scheduled to be delivered between 2025 and 2028.

Program history

The program called "Construction of the Naval Power Nucleus" was created in 2017 with the main purpose of replacing the Niterói-class frigates in operation since 1975 and the Type 22 acquired second-hand from the United Kingdom in the 1990s.
Several companies from seventeen countries entered in the competition opened by the Ministry of Defense, offering different types of projects and offset packages. On 16 May 2017, the list of all participating companies was released.
On 15 October 2018, after more than a year of studies by the Directorate of Program Management of the Navy and the Naval Projects Management Company, the short-list of the finalist projects was release, the selected projects were:
On 28 March 2019, the winning project was presented, the Águas Azuis consortium led by Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems with a project of the 3.500 tons MEKO A-100 class corvette. In April of the same year, the project was renamed from corvette to frigate.
The contract of € 2 billion, was signed between the Brazilian government and the winning consortium on 6 March 2020, with the start of construction of the first of the four frigates planned for 2021. The Brazilian Navy plans to order two more class frigates, extending the total to six ships.

Navy specifications

The specifications for the new class of frigates were defined by the Brazilian Navy through the Directorate of Program Management of the Navy and the Naval Projects Management Company, in addition to replacing the oldest ships in the fleet, aims to protect of the so-called Blue Amazon, a resource-rich area covering about 4.5 million square kilometers off the Brazilian coast, conduct search and rescue operations and meet international commitments, among other tasks.
The plan required projects with the following armaments and specifications: unit price between € 300-450 million, OTO Melara 76mm main gun, minimum eight VLS Sea Ceptor CAMM missile cells, Bofors 40mm gun, two.50 machine guns, two triple Mark 46 anti-submarine torpedo launchers and two twin anti-ship missile launchers for MBDA Exocet MM40 block I-III or MANSUP. In addition to a propulsion system for diesel engines and a hangar capable of operating a SH-60 Seahawk, Super Lynx Mk.21B or Eurocopter EC725.
The winning consortium will have to build the four ships in Brazil, in addition to transferring 100% of the project's technology to the Brazilian Navy.

Thyssenkrupp project

The Águas Azuis consortium, led by Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems presented its frigate proposal, based on the original design of the MEKO A-100 corvette, the project had an extended tonnage from 2.000 to 3.500 tons, length increase, several new state-of-the-art systems such as BAE Systems Type 997 Artisan 3D radar, weapons and fire control, thus allowing the ship to gain muscle to carry out oceanic crossings in the stormy South Atlantic, in addition, of course, carrying powerful armaments that would guarantee its versatility. The ship will be comparable to its predecessor, the Niterói-class frigate.
Atech, an Embraer Group company, will be the supplier of the CMS and IPMS. Other aspects of the project that led to the winning bid are the similarities with the MEKO A-200 frigate class and its modular construction system, allowing versatility in future updates. The company also presented offsets to the Brazilian Navy, such as the remotorization of the Tupi class submarines built by the same company in the 80s and 90s.
The Brazilian Navy also plans to build 7.000 tons destroyers after the delivery of the new frigates, and TKMS presented to the Navy its most modern 7.200 tons MEKO A-400 air defense destroyer, an updated version of the German F-125 class frigates. The similarities between the projects and the high rate of commonality between requirements were also crucial for the consortium's victory.

Units

There are four units of the class planned.
Pennant No.NameBuilderLaid DownLaunchedCommissionedStatus
V35TamandaréTKMS, Oceana Shipyard, Itajaí202120252026Planned
V36Jerônimo de AlbuquerqueTKMS, Oceana Shipyard, ItajaíTBD20262027Planned
V37Cunha MoreiraTKMS, Oceana Shipyard, ItajaíTBD20272028Planned
V38Mariz e BarrosTKMS, Oceana Shipyard, ItajaíTBD20282029Planned