Whenever a Naval flotilla is conducting a major cruise, and covering a number of ocean regions, there is always a fleet replenishment vessel accompanying the principal warship, or warships. The fleet replenishment vessel, which in American speak is better known as a Combat Support Ship, is known in the German Navy as an ‘Einsatzgruppenversorger’, which translates as a Task Force Supplier. As expected, with the arrival off Cape Town of Federal German Navy frigate FGS Baden-Württemberg in recent days, came an ‘Einsatzgruppenversorger’.
On 12 November, just after 09:00 in the morning, the German Federal Navy Task Group 500.01 arrived off Cape Town, from Mormugao in India. FGS Baden-Württemberg was first to enter Cape Town harbour, followed at 10:00 by the fleet replenishment vessel.
Laid down in August 2000, and launched in January 2001, FGS Frankfurt am Main was commissioned into the Federal German Navy in May 2002. She was the second of a class of three replenishment vessels, classified as a Type 702 vessel, and known as the Berlin Class, with all three sisterships named after German past and present parliamentary cities. Her hull was built at Flensburger Schiffbau GmbH shipyards, at Flensburg in Germany, with superstructure, outfitting, and sea trials, completed at Krögerwerft GmbH shipyard, at Rendsburg in Germany.
With a length of 174 metres, and a deadweight of 20 243 tons, FGS Frankfurt am Main is powered by two MAN-B&W 12V32/40 twelve cylinder, four stroke, main engines producing 7 160 bhp (5 340 kW) each, and driving two controllable pitch propellers for a service speed of 20 knots. Her auxiliary machinery includes four Deutz-MWM generators providing 1 200 kW each. For added manoeuvrability she has a single bow transverse thruster.
With an endurance of 45 days, and a range of 8 600 nautical miles, FGS Frankfurt am Main has an operating crew of up to 150 officers and ratings, plus additional accommodation for a further 74 persons, made up of medical teams and aviation support units. She is fitted with a modular medical unit, complete with two operating theatres, an intensive care unit, X-Ray suite, a dental surgery, medical laboratories, and patient wards for up to 50 casualties.
She carried 40 additional crew, made up of a Medical Team, and a Naval Infantry party. Whilst she has a helideck, and hangarage for up to two NH90 Sealion helicopters, FGS Frankfurt am Main was not carrying any onboard helicopters for this deployment, with FGS Baden-Württemberg carrying two Westland Sea Lynx Mk.88A helicopters, provided by Naval Aviation Squadron 5, based at Naval Air Base Nordholz, located 25km from Bremerhaven.
As a fleet replenishment vessel, FGS Frankfurt am Main has light, defensive only, armament. It includes four Rheinmetall MLG27 27 mm autocannons, four standard, manually fired, 12.7 mm machine guns, and she is also fitted with mountings capable of holding Stinger, manually fired, surface to air missiles (MANPADS).
She belongs to the largest class of vessel in the Federal German Navy, and is able to carry, store, and transfer provisions, dry stores, ammunition and fuel by utilising two Replenishment At Sea (RAS) stations, with one on the port side, and one on the starboard side, as well as by helicopter vertical replenishment using her helideck. She also is fitted with two electro-hydraulic cranes for cargo movement on deck, and for dockside transfer.
Due to her liquid carrying capability she is a double hulled vessel, with a liquid carrying capacity of 9 000 m3 of marine diesel fuel, 600 m3 of aviation jet fuel, 60 m3 of lubricating oil, and 70 m3 of fresh water. She has a container carrying capacity of 86 TEU, and can carry 1 960 tons of cargo, which includes spares, consumables, stores, provisions, and ammunition.
She departed her home Naval Base at Wilhelmshaven in Germany on 7 May, to rendezvous with FGS Baden-Württemberg, which had departed on the same day from the NATO Naval Base at Rota in Spain, with both vessels to form the Indo-Pacific Deployment (IPD 24), which took them both across the North Atlantic Ocean to undertake their first exercise with the United States Navy (USN) and the Canadian Navy, culminating in visits the Canadian port of Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and New York City in the United States.
After her activities on the East Coast of North America, she made a transit of the Panama Canal, to enter the Pacific Ocean, and make a courtesy call to the USN base at San Diego, in the US State of California. From there she began her first major crossing of the Pacific Ocean, heading for the USN base at Pearl Harbour in the US State of Hawaii, where both FGS Frankfurt am Main and FGS Baden-Württemberg were to take part in Exercise Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 24, which took place in several elements between 27th June and 2nd August.
It was to be the world’s largest ever international military maritime exercise, with Exercise RIMPAC 24 having 29 western leaning nations directly involved, with 40 surface warships, 4 submarines, 171 military aircraft, 14 national marine infantry forces, which totalled just over 25 000 people taking part. Exercise RIMPAC 24 had multiple purposes which included anti-submarine exercises, surface naval warfare exercises, amphibious exercises, disaster relief exercises, anti-piracy and interdiction exercises, and command and control exercises.
First begun in 1971, and taking place biennially, this was the 29th running of Exercise RIMPAC, and the list of nations that took part in Exercise RIMPAC 24 is quite impressive. It, included the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Mexico, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Thailand, Philippines, and Tonga from the Pacific Rim Nations. It also included the European nations of Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Belgium, Holland, and Denmark, plus the Indian Ocean nations of India and Sri Lanka, with Brazil, and even Israel, also taking part.
After Exercise RIMPAC 24, Task Group 500.01 headed to Japan, where they undertook exercises with the Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Force, and then worked with the South Korean Navy conducting both monitoring and Surveillance operations, in support of United Nations sanctions resolutions against North Korea.
From South Korea, FGS Frankfurt am Maintook part in Exercise Nobel Raven 24-3 in the South China Sea, before becoming one of the seven warships that made a transit of the Taiwan Strait, under protest from China, to underscore the ‘Freedom of Navigation’ and ‘Transit Passage’ rights enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Ironically, despite their protests, the UNCLOS Treaty includes China as a national signatory to the provisions of freedom of navigation contained within UNCLOS.
After a number of courtesy calls in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia, a further courtesy call was made to the Changi Naval Base of the Republic of Singapore Navy. Whilst alongside in Singapore, the activities were not just military, but also cultural. It included a joint concert given by the Singapore Armed Forces Central Band, and the Band of the German Naval Corps. A Passing Exercise (PASSEX) was conducted with units of the Republic of Singapore on departure from Changi Naval Base.
From Singapore the task group sailed into the Indian Ocean, and on to India where they were to take part in a three-day Maritime Partnership Exercise (MPX) with the Indian Navy, between 21 and 23 October, with the Delhi Class guided missile destroyer INS Delhi of the Eastern Naval Command, based at the Indian Naval Base at Visakhapatnam.
An interesting optic during the MPX, was one of scale. With FGS Baden-Württemberg being one of the class considered to be the largest frigates in the world, a tri-vessel replenishment at sea (RAS) exercise took place with FGS Baden-Württemberg and INS Delhi taking station on either side of FGS Frankfurt am Main. Despite being classed as a Destroyer, a class of warship considered larger than a Frigate, INS Delhi looked decidedly smaller, and by a good margin, than FGS Baden-Württemberg during the RAS.
On completion of the MPX, and a courtesy visit to Mormugao, both vessels headed for Cape Town, and a Cape sea route transit back to Europe. The reasons given for using the Cape sea route was due to neither vessel having long range surface to air armaments to reduce any risk presented by Houthi attacks. With only a RAM missile defence, which is suitable out to a distance of 9 km, which is not sufficient in the event of ballistic missile attacks, a last minute decision was taken by the German Ministry of Defence to reroute both vessels to Cape Town.
Once FGS Frankfurt am Main has completed her requirements in Cape Town, which includes stores and fresh provisions uplifts, plus some crew change options, she is scheduled to return to her base at Wilhelmshaven in Germany. She is scheduled to continue to accompany FGS Baden-Württemberg as far as Gibraltar, where the Frigate will head back into the Mediterranean, with a call at the NATO naval base at Rota in Spain, before proceeding to the Eastern Mediterranean to continue with provision of support to the troops of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
As of 1 November 2024, the UNIFIL force consisted of a total of 10 150 ‘Blue Helmet’ peacekeepers, provided by 48 UN member nations. This total includes Germany with 101 military peacekeepers. Of interest is the African representation in UNIFIL, with Ghana providing a substantial force of 878 military peacekeepers, along with Tanzania with 125 military peacekeepers, as well as smaller ‘Blue Helmet’ contingents provided by Kenya, Malawi, Zambia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.
The role of the Federal German Navy is to protect the sea routes that form the basis of the trade that makes up the powerful German economy. In a broader sense, the principal task of the Federal German Navy is to protect the country, but also to enforce both the EU and NATO interests at sea. Furthermore, the Federal German Navy participates in UN missions around the world, with an involvement in peacekeeping and peace-enforcement operations, plus providing support to allies on a global scale.
On the conclusion of each individual voyage of the two vessels that comprised Task Group 500.01 of the Indo-Pacific Deployment (IPD) of 2024, both FGS Frankfurt am Main and FGS Baden-Württemberg will have completed a circumnavigation of the Earth. Seeing them both in a South African port was both a pleasant surprise, and a boon to the Cape Town casual maritime observer.
Written by Jay Gates for Africa Ports & Ships. The original article can be found here.
