Germany's Budget Committee Authorizes Purchase of Five New K130 Corvettes

The German Parliament’s Budget Committee on November 11 gave the green light to the acquisition of five more K130 type corvettes at about $1.6 billion each for the country’s Navy.

Berlin announced earlier in October that it would procure an additional five K130 Braunchweig-class corvettes in 2017 after the German Defense Ministry notified lawmakers that the final contract negotiations regarding the planned four MKS 180 Multi-Role Combat Ships would be extended.

The MKS 180 programme will provide the Navy with warships capable of tackling targets above and below water and supporting land missions. The country's ruling coalition said it would buy a second batch of K130 corvettes to compensate for the six-month delay.

The corvettes are not as expensive as frigates, are easier to navigate in coastal waters and congested regions and don't have to be designed from scratch. A German Navy spokesman also said, according to DefenseNews, that the purchase of the corvettes answers NATO's recently enacted new requirements.

NATO reportedly expects Germany to provide two extra corvettes at the highest readiness level for use in littoral operations from 2018 on. Currently, only two of the country's existing squadron of five K130 Braunschweig-class corvettes are assigned to NATO missions.

German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung suggested in October that the German Navy's modernization, including the purchase of the new corvettes, could be perceived as a signal from Berlin to Russia.

The Navy hopes that the first two corvettes will join the fleet by the end of this decade, with the remaining three vessels entering service by 2023.