German Navy
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Vice-Admiral Schönbach, the Inspector Admiral and Supreme Commander of the German Navy, spoke at the 42nd IISS Fullerton Lecture in Singapore:
Announcement:
www.iiss.org
Youtube video of the lecture:
The speech - after a keynote - is about 20 minutes, followed by a 45-minute Q&A session.
As a note, the audio is a bit low throughout. It is entirely in English.
Schönbach mostly speaks about the Indopacific, the frigate deployment, lessons learned so far, outlooks and interactions with regards to China. The vast majority of interesting information is in the Q&A section, since his "answers" are obviously somewhat prepared, several minute (!) long explanations - there have apparently been comments that it has been one of the best Q&As of IISS Lectures so far.
Announcement:
The Future of Indo-Pacific Maritime Security
During a port visit to Singapore by Germany's Bayern frigate, Germany's Head of Navy Vice Admiral Kay-Achim Schönbach will deliver the 42nd IISS Fullerton Lecture. With a new government in Berlin, Vice Admiral Schönbach will outline Germany's vision for the future of regional maritime security...
www.iiss.org
Youtube video of the lecture:
The speech - after a keynote - is about 20 minutes, followed by a 45-minute Q&A session.
As a note, the audio is a bit low throughout. It is entirely in English.
Schönbach mostly speaks about the Indopacific, the frigate deployment, lessons learned so far, outlooks and interactions with regards to China. The vast majority of interesting information is in the Q&A section, since his "answers" are obviously somewhat prepared, several minute (!) long explanations - there have apparently been comments that it has been one of the best Q&As of IISS Lectures so far.
PetranPireotis
Member
German Navy frigate arriving at Piraeus Port
The cruise of Gorch Fock was cut short by a Covid outbreak among the core crew. The ship is currently laying under quarantine in the port of Santa Cruz in Teneriffa. The 14 infected among the 83 core crew were flown to Germany by the Luftwaffe onboard a A310 Medevac.
They have found a solution for the cadets though that were to come aboard last week. Since the new frigate F224 Sachsen-Anhalt - the third F125 frigate - was sailing for Rota last sunday anyway she's taking the first group of 60 cadets along for a two-week "onboard internship". It's as of yet unclear whether these cadets can switch to Gorch Fock in Cadiz, it's definitely still planned for Gorch Fock to sail with the second group of cadets though next month.
F214 Lübeck will (... once again ...) depart for her "last deployment" next monday. She will replace F216 Schleswig-Holstein there.
The F122 frigate will join NATO SNMG2 in the Aegaean Sea primarily for sea surveillance duties together with the European Coastguard Agency FRONTEX. Lübeck deployed for the same mission three times in the last four years, the last 4-month deployment as well as the current one occured under "Covid conditions" i.e. without any shore leave for crew.
Planned return at Wilhelmshaven naval base is in June this year.
Vice-Admiral Schönbach is stepping down from his post after statements he made in a similar speech in India yesterday (regarding Crimea being permanently "lost" to Russia and Ukraine "never" fulfilling membership criteria for NATO) which led to some controversy and a minor diplomatic fracas between Ukraine and Germany.
Minister of Defense Lambrecht has granted his request to be retired. The Navy is being led interim by Rear Admiral Jan Christian Kaack, his former deputy commander.
Musashi_kenshin
Well-Known Member
It's even worse, he said Germany "needed" Russia against China.
I have to wonder if there are other members of the German military command that think like this. Because if there are, it would make sense why Russia feels so confident in bullying its neighbours. If even generals and admirals are reluctant to take on bully-boys, what hope is there that their political masters would do so?
Hopefully his replacement will have a little more backbone (and common sense).
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The domestic political problem with his statements is that to some extent he may have veered dangerously close to a pro-Russia line pushed by multiple former Bundeswehr generals that are members of the AfD opposition party (e.g. BrigGen a.D. Schwab or GenLt a.D. Wundrak).
However, a de-escalation call on NATO and the German government (english translated version, haven't checked how close the precise wording is to the original) that was published last month and signed by a whole slew of former top-line personnel, including e.g. Gen a.D. Klaus Naumann, former supreme commander of the Bundeswehr (1991-1996) and former head of the NATO military committee (1996-1999) or e.g. Ulrich Brandenburg, former German ambassador to first NATO (2006-2010) and then Russia (2010-2014).
Schönbach's statements are somewhere in the middle between those, and the problem isn't his stance, it's that he expressed it in a public setting in which he should have expressed the government line instead.
Personal Note: A black-white thinking of "bully-boys" or "backbone" that may be en-vogue in some NATO member countries isn't really helpful.
You'll probably be disappointed in that regard - Schönbach was considered a very "conservative" and forceful commander for the Navy of a traditional kind that is hard to find.
Musashi_kenshin
Well-Known Member
Of course. It goes without saying that in any (democratic) country the military should be following the government's foreign policy line, rather than contradicting it.
Oh dear. Well, at least if they keep their personal thoughts to themselves it will be an improvement.
Apparently it was worth a tweet by the commander of 2nd Flotilla:
F125 frigate Nordrhein-Westfalen during the storm yesterday in North Germany got enough wind pressure to its side to rip out one of the cast iron bollards on the pier she was tied to with double lines either end. Bottom right picture shows where the bollard was.
Hurricane Nadia - with winds up to 127 km/h - yesterday was strong enough to also remove e.g. the entire beach on the island of Langeoog and caused floods in Hamburg and several other port cities.
The Coastguard had to assist the unloaded bulk freighter Vienna (about 60,000t deadweight) which was drifting unmaneuverable in waves up to 7m height 16 nm offshore, with large multi-purpose ship Neuwerk and ocean tug Nordic deployed along with a towing assistance team airlifted by a Federal Police helicopter to the freighter.
F125 frigate Nordrhein-Westfalen during the storm yesterday in North Germany got enough wind pressure to its side to rip out one of the cast iron bollards on the pier she was tied to with double lines either end. Bottom right picture shows where the bollard was.
Hurricane Nadia - with winds up to 127 km/h - yesterday was strong enough to also remove e.g. the entire beach on the island of Langeoog and caused floods in Hamburg and several other port cities.
The Coastguard had to assist the unloaded bulk freighter Vienna (about 60,000t deadweight) which was drifting unmaneuverable in waves up to 7m height 16 nm offshore, with large multi-purpose ship Neuwerk and ocean tug Nordic deployed along with a towing assistance team airlifted by a Federal Police helicopter to the freighter.
Yeah that was quite a storm! Yesterday a Tanker (Pechora Star) collided with a bulk carrier (Julietta D) at an anchorage off the coast near IJmuiden. Piercing her hull and leaving her rudderless and drifting towards a wind farm. Ultimately three SAR helicopters from the Netherlands and Belgium managed to evacuate her crew, and the rescue tugs Sovereign (Boskalis) and Multratug 18 (Multraship) managed to attach towing lines. But not before Julietta D hit a foundation that was being constructed... link
She's now being towed to Rotterdam.
Edit: For Fincantieri case, yes we pursue autonomy but isnt owning or sharing TKMS also autonomy? That argument is a bit weak. The problem is that almost all shipyards are in loss. Italian and French ones can keep the head above the water just enough thanks to the cruiser industry but otherwise it would be drammatic. The decision is a political one.
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For some scale of current lead time on regular purchases for foreign users, Damen just announced that they've signed the purchasing contract for the Mk41 installations for the four F126 frigates (eight 8-cell modules total). First ship is planned to be delivered to the Navy in 2028.
Current German Navy deployments, per public sources
Bit of a wall-of-text, but i tried to be fairly comprehensive. Most (combat) ships not mentioned below, the usual about one-quarter of the fleet, are in some sort of maintenance.
Overseas/NATO:
At home:
Bit of a wall-of-text, but i tried to be fairly comprehensive. Most (combat) ships not mentioned below, the usual about one-quarter of the fleet, are in some sort of maintenance.
Overseas/NATO:
- A702 AOR ship Berlin has been deployed with SNMG1 as its flag ship since 02/02. SNMG1 originally took part in exercise Cold Response in Norway and has since then deployed to the Baltic Sea.
- A423 ELINT ship Alster left Eckernförde on 02/26 for an intelligence and surveillance mission in the Baltic Sea. The Navy will "not comment" on rumours that she may be escorted by a submarine.
- F122 frigate Lübeck has been deployed with SNMG2 since 01/18. SNMG2 is currently taking part in large-scale ASW exercise Dynamic Manta off the coast of Sicily. Lübeck is formally deployed for NATO OP Sea Guardian.
- F124 frigate Sachsen (the one without VLS) is deployed on a training mission in the central Baltic Sea since 02/15. The Navy chose to "mention" in a press release that her SMART-L can provide air surveillance over the entire Baltic Sea from there. Also I assume that her laser that she was to get for trials for this year has not been installed yet.
- K130 corvette Erfurt left Wilhelmshaven on 02/27 to join SNMG1. Erfurt was originally planned to join UNIFIL and had already departed from Rostock a week earlier for that but was recalled from this mission.
- K130 corvette Braunschweig seems to be continuing her deployment with UNIFIL out of Cyprus; Erfurt was planned to replace her on the mission. While Braunschweig has been there since June '21 just organizing a crew switch instead of replacing the ship is entirely possible. The longest previous standing deployment of a K130 in Cyprus was 18 months.
- M332 MCM ship Bad Bevensen has been deployed with SNMCMG1 in the Baltic Sea since 01/21, supposedly operating in its western half. The group switched to the North Sea later on and is currently operating around Stavanger in Norway.
- M332 MCM ship Bad Rappenau has entered Haifa, Israel today, where she will formally join SNMCMG2 tomorrow on 03/01. SNMCMG2 will then deploy to the Black Sea.
- M332 MCM ships Fulda and Datteln have been deployed on a national mission to Tallinn, Estonia since 02/14, patrolling the gulf west of St. Petersburg between Finland and Estonia and "training" with Finnish and Estonian ships - the Bundeswehr chose a photo for the press release that shows them with Finnish minelayer Uusimaa equipped with ASW and limited self-defense AAW. The two German ships were rerouted there from a training deployment in the North Sea. Both ships returned to Kiel for resupply later, but deployed to their mission again on 02/28. See also below under At Home.
- BP86 gunboat err coastguard cutter Potsdam today departed on a patrol on which it is expected in Liepava, Latvia by Thursday 03/03.
At home:
- F123 frigates Bayern and Schleswig-Holstein, F124 frigate Hamburg, A702 AOR ship Bonn and A704 AO ship Spessart recently returned from longer missions and have just entered the wind-down phase, i.e. a deployment is very unlikely but could remotely be possible if necessary.
- F125 frigate Rheinland-Pfalz is stationed pretty much squarely in the center of the approach path of the bay leading to naval base Eckernförde, i.e. the submarine and intelligence ship base. Besides blocking approach routes to Eckernförde the location is 30 nm west of the southern entrance to the Great Belt, the only route Russian oil tankers over 8m draught can take through Danish waters to get to the Atlantic.
- F125 frigate Sachsen-Anhalt is underway east of Germany's largest island Rügen, coincidentally patrolling at a position where the entirety of the Nord Stream pipeline within German national waters is within her horizon range. The position also oversees the approach to the port of Mukran, the main interchange with Russian ships.
- A404 tender Main is underway out of Eckernförde and probably cut her AIS after leaving the bight. Her deployment would mean submarines are operating "somewhere".
- A404 tender Rhein seems to have conducted a patrol in the strategically important Bay of Lübeck for the past week and is since 02/28 currently anchored offshore in the bay in a position observing seaside approaches to the Naval Bases of Kiel and Holstein as well as the Kiel Canal.
- A404 tender Elbe and M332 MCM ships Homburg, Sulzbach-Rosenberg and Siegburg left Kiel 02/28 and initially assumed a formation within German waters off the port of Eckernförde - together with the above-mentioned vessels Datteln and Fulda. Potentially these four ships will hence also be deployed eastwards in the coming days. Their mission has been stated as training and "strenghtening the Northern Flank", i.e. the same as for the other two.
- A German Navy P-3C Orion occasionally performs national surveillance flights over the Baltic Sea and adjoining areas between German and Finnish air bases. In principle such flights have been performed since 2014, they just didn't make their way into press releases before this month.
- The Navy is planning a deployment of a naval infantry company to Klaipeda in Lithuania, less than 50 km from Kaliningrad Oblast. Klaipeda is the largest port of a NATO member in the eastern Baltic Sea. It's also coincidentally where currently new ships for the German Coastguard are being built.
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P.S. to above post:
Going by AIS data the reserve "held back" seems to consist of:
Everything else is in post-deployment wind-down or either likely or known maintenance and hasn't been active for weeks to months, and thus would not be immediately available. In some cases this maintenance is known to have ended recently but the ships have not gone to sea for trials again yet. This is in particular F125 frigate Baden-Württemberg that was undocked in January; the A702 AOR ship Frankfurt is also sitting in a shipyard only waiting for a new hospital in a new deckhouse to be installed and is likely otherwise functional if a crew is available.
Going by AIS data the reserve "held back" seems to consist of:
- a full-spectrum surface taskgroup (not assembled) with F124 frigate Hessen, F123 frigate Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, K130 corvettes Oldenburg and Ludwigshafen
- a MCM taskgroup (assembled in Kiel) with A404 tender Mosel, M332 MCM ships Dillingen, Rottweil, Weilheim and M352 MCM drone control ship Pegnitz
Everything else is in post-deployment wind-down or either likely or known maintenance and hasn't been active for weeks to months, and thus would not be immediately available. In some cases this maintenance is known to have ended recently but the ships have not gone to sea for trials again yet. This is in particular F125 frigate Baden-Württemberg that was undocked in January; the A702 AOR ship Frankfurt is also sitting in a shipyard only waiting for a new hospital in a new deckhouse to be installed and is likely otherwise functional if a crew is available.
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Rear Admiral Kaack will be formally made Inspector of the Navy on March 11th and promoted to Vice Admiral. In his job as deputy commander he will be replaced by Rear Admiral Frank Lenski, currently chief-of-staff of the Navy Command.
Going by AIS data A404 tender Rhein is being deployed to Hanko, Finland, presumably to support German MCM ships deployed in the area.
K130 corvette Oldenburg, previously held available, seems to be doing patrols of the Lübeck Bay instead, sortieing from Rostock further east.
German units seem to largely run with full AIS broadcasts so far, presumably somewhat intentionally - if only to increase "plot density" in the Baltic Sea. Because there frankly isn't that much being deployed there by other NATO allies. Denmark has a frigate patrolling south of of their easternmost island of Bornholm and another with SNMG1; they've additionally recalled Esbern Snare (running without AIS) from West Africa though. Latvia and Lithuania have boats patrolling along the naval border to Kaliningrad. The Polish Navy is conspicuously absent.
The keel for the 10th K130 corvette has been laid. With #6-8 in final outfitting and #9 in assembly all five corvettes of the second batch are under construction now.
#10 has the bow module built at NVL shipyard Wolgast and the stern module at GNYK shipyard Kiel. Both modules will be assembled at NVL shipyard Hamburg (Blohm+Voss).
#10 has the bow module built at NVL shipyard Wolgast and the stern module at GNYK shipyard Kiel. Both modules will be assembled at NVL shipyard Hamburg (Blohm+Voss).