German Navy

[koxinga]

On the paper specs alone, a variant of the A210 design would address the issues that you mentioned earlier (e.g reusing the MK41, TRS-4D NROT, sonar, even a twin medium helicopter).

 

[kato]

There have been so many changes in the past 30 years..

The main changes in the naval shipbuilding industry in Germany are:

• The HDW shipyard in Kiel got split up into two in the 90s. One is owned by TKMS, the other by GNYK.
  • TKMS also still has one other full construction site, the HDW shipyard in Hamburg. They used to have a smaller shipyard in Emden on the western border of Germany, but closed that recently.
  • TKMS bought an additional shipyard in Wismar recently (last year) and is developing it, although they do not have staff on site so far; it is being operated by Meyer in the meantime.
  • GNYK also "inherited" some designs and/or design capacity from HDW with that i think.
• Lürssen sold off its defence business temporarily known as NVL, now owned by Rheinmetall.
  • This group also has two construction shipyards, Blohm+Voss in Hamburg and Peene-Werft in Wismar. Peene-Werft is a former East-German military shipyard near the Polish border.
  • Unlike TKMS this group also operates or has shares in a number of repair shipyards for the Navy, in particular right next to the main navy base and navy arsenal in Wilhelmshaven.
  • Lürssen itself as a company - outside the sold-off defence business - also still has stakes in repair yards that do navy ships, often only partial.

For the subcontractors and smaller ones:

• Rönner Group is a fairly unknown/newer name in shipbuilding. That's because they do their business under other names.
  • Rönner is a traditional steel construction company. They bought up a number of smaller East-German shipyards in the early 90s and refocused them mostly towards component construction as a supplier. Also just steel construction like say bridges. I think they also built yachts at those. They do actively continue this part of the business with a focus on the maritime side, e.g. they bought up the whole steel construction department of Nobiskrug from Lürssen when that shipyard was dissolved recently.
  • In 2019 Rönner bought Bredo, then in 2022 a majority stake in Lloydwerft (together with an investment partner), giving them a very solid share in repair shipyard capacity in Germany. As in they own more swimdocks than all the rest combined.
  • In 2025 Rönner bought FSG to branch out into shipbuilding. FSG built e.g. the Berlin class (A704) AORs for the navy, but in general mostly focuses on container ships, ferries, offshore industry.
• Meyer owns two separate shipyards, focusing on civilian shipbuilding. Since 2024 the Meyer family only owns 20% of the business, the rest is state-owned (40% state government, 40% federal government).
  • Their main shipyard in Papenburg on the Ems river (Meyerwerft) builds cruise ships. The really large kind. With sort of a market leader position in Europe. While it was considered to switch the shipyard to military production they instead recently got a contract for cruise ships worth 10 billion Euro that covers their capacity at this yard until the mid 2030s.
  • Their second shipyard in Rostock (Neptunwerft) used to build components for the other yard and river cruiseships. Since Covid they're aiming to refocus this one mostly towards offshore industry and container ships similar to FSG above. This shipyard is currently building the A707 tankers for the navy.
• Fassmer owns two smaller shipyards in Berne (just outside Bremen) located near each other.
  • One is their main facility that can build ships up to 130m length. That's the one that builds e.g. the 86m OPVs for the Federal Police and similar vessels. They mostly do final outfitting for these ships there, and may also do this for other shipyards (e.g. Meteor IV built by Meyer). As mentioned they recently rented another shipyard to switch to full inhouse production.
  • The other (Schweers) was bought up by them and previously mostly built police/customs boats, SAR cruisers etc up to 60m length. Hence why that's the core business of Fassmer today.
  • Secondary business besides shipbuilding is building rescue boats for larger ships, which they sell globally. If you see a Fassmer office in e.g. South-East Asia or South America that's for that secondary business.
• Abeking & Rasmussen has a single shipyard in Lemwerder (also just outside Bremen). They used to have a secondary business from the early 90s to late 10s in building fibre glass components for offshore wind industry.
  • They also have facilities to build ships up to 130m length there. Mostly individual ships designed for customers.
  • Main business is yachts, but they also have a fairly successful unique SWATH design they're selling as patrol boats and pilot boats/tenders to public authorities. Also minehunters - but not really much business in that regard.
  • In recent years they have started multiple cooperation projects with nearby Fassmer, especially for larger naval/security vessels. E.g. they have a joint venture aiming for the MuSE tender contract from the Navy.

 

[kato]

P.P.S. since it's not quite clear from the above

• Rönner Group, besides the recent FSG acquisition, owns in shipyards:
  • Stahlbau Nord in Bremerhaven which built the Meko A200 hulls for Egypt as subcontractor to TKMS
  • two riverside shipyards (SET Genthin and SET Tangermünde) that build riverine and coastal patrol boats and similar auxiliary ships for public authorities. Facilities at both are for ships up to about 80-85m length.
• Lürssen does still have its own shipbuilding capacity:
  • Lürssen-Kröger Werft in Schacht (on the Kiel Canal) and Rolandwerft in Berne (where Fassmer is), both with facilities similar to Fassmer and A&R.
  • both currently build superyachts, but used to do container feeder ships and (for Kröger) were occasionally used for military construction in the past - especially for larger programmes Lürssen was involved with, like minesweepers.

 

[spoz]

Fassmer’s business in South America also includes the OPVs as for Chile and Colombia. I always thought they would have been a better choice got Australia, too. Apart from anything else, they had experience in exporting their design to foreign shipyards, which Luerssen didn’t - and that cost both them and the RAN.

 

[kato]

I thought Damen had a footprint in Germany.

Just looked it up btw - Damen has partially rented an office building in Hamburg, which houses (or housed):

• Damen Naval Germany GmbH, the project office for F126 (called Damen Naval Hamburg in their business reports). Fairly sure they only have a handful of staff, imported from the Netherlands.
• Damen Services Germany GmbH, reselling third-party ship maintenance/repair services. Apparently mostly for Damen-built ships for warranty/aftersales service, e.g. they got a maintenance contract last year for Damen-built harbour tugs from Fairplay Towage (Damen has "Damen Services" subcompanies for this in a variety of places. One is in Brisbane for example).
• Van der Velden Barkemeyer GmbH, a subcompany (and trademark) of Damen Marine Components. They seem to develop rudders. Company has been around in Germany since '99 moving their offices around to various places. The only newsworthy thing i can find about them was that a German competitor sued them in 2005 for possible infringement of Chinese and Korean patents. Think Damen won that case.
• in 2024 they also shifted some other staff from Damen Marine Components there due to available office space.

P.S. Damen Naval Germany as a limited company (GmbH) had a capital of 25,000 Euro for liability purposes when founded in 2020, i.e. the legal minimum required.