According to a tweet published by Mahmoud Gamal on January 4, 2023, the second Egyptian MEKO A200 EN frigate Al Qahhar has started her sea trials.
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Second MEKO A200 EN frigate ENS Al Qahhar in Kiel, Germany. (Picture source: Mahmoud Gamal)
The MEKO 200 is a frigate design by the Blohm + Voss shipyard of Germany, as part of the MEKO family of warships. In December 2021, the German government approved the sale of 3 frigates to Egypt. This order was increased to 4 then to the current 6 frigates with some to be built in Egypt. The first vessel was handed over in October 2022.
A fighting ship capable of full 4-dimensional warfare (AAW, ASW and ASuW, BCW), the MEKO® A-200 Frigate is also designed for sustained operations across the full spectrum of general missions and tasks: patrol and interdiction, support of special force operations, SAR and humanitarian operations.
The MEKO® A-200 Frigate features the revolutionary CODAG-WARP (Water jet and Refined Propellers) propulsion system: two CPP propeller shafts driven by cross-connectable diesel engines plus a center-line gas turbine-driven water jet, combining the power of each drive in the water without the need of a combining gearbox. This arrangement allows for extremely quiet acoustic signatures, a high degree of propulsion redundancy and damage survivability.
The propulsion arrangement also provides, in the diesel-only mode, an extremely economic solution, whereby one engine can drive both shafts for a ship’s speed of 18 knots.
The MEKO® A-200 Frigate has outstanding sea-keeping and tactical mobility. The fast mono-hull features a forefoot skeg for greatly reduced yawing and directional stability in a seaway. The >16 m beam and active fin stabilizers provide platform stability such that safe helicopter and boat operations can be conducted in sea state 6.
With a tactical diameter of less than four ship lengths and a stopping distance from full speed using the reversing water jet (crash-stop manoeuvre) of less that two ship lengths, the MEKO® A-200 Frigate outperforms all frigates in the same tonnage class.
The Egyptian frigates are armed with Oto Melara 127/64 LW 127 mm main gun, MSI-Defence 30 mm cannons, 32 VLS celles for VL MICA NG surface to air missiles, 8 Exocet anti-ship missiles, Rheinmetall Defence MASS softkill decoy launchers.
