Greece Receives Its 2nd FDI Frigate: Nearchos Boosts Aegean Air Defense
France’s Naval Group formally handed over HS Nearchos (F602), the second Defence and Intervention Frigate (FDI) built for the Hellenic Navy, at a ceremony in Lorient on October 30. Greek Defence Minister Nikos Dendias and French Armed Forces Minister Catherine Vautrin both attended the handover.
Businessman Athanasios Martinos served as the ship’s sponsor, while Commander Vasileios Karagiannakis takes charge as her commanding officer. Nearchos is the second of four FDI frigates Greece ordered in 2022; the lead ship, Kimon, was delivered in December 2025.
First Greek FDI in the “Standard 2” configuration
Nearchos is the first FDI to enter Greek service in the so-called “Standard 2” configuration, which adds two A50 SYLVER vertical-launch modules, SYLENA air-defence launchers and a 21-cell RAM close-in weapon system compared with the baseline fit.
Those additions give the frigate noticeably deeper layered air defence than Kimon, which was delivered in the earlier Standard 1 configuration. A third unit, Formion, is due by the end of 2026, while a firm delivery date for the fourth ship has not yet been set.
A 13-ship programme across three navies
The wider FDI programme covers 13 frigates for three navies: five for France, four for Greece and four for Sweden. France’s first unit, Amiral Ronarc’h, has already entered service, while two Greek, one Swedish and two French hulls remain under construction.
Sweden’s first ship of the Luleå class entered production on October 1, 2026, underlining how a single hull design is now scaling across three separate NATO fleets rather than staying a bespoke national project.
What exactly is an FDI frigate?
FDI stands for “Frégate de Défense et d’Intervention” and is also marketed internationally under the name Belharra. The ships displace roughly 4,460 tonnes, measure 122 metres in length and 18 metres in the beam, and carry a crew of around 125.
Standard armament includes Thales’s Sea Fire AESA radar, Exocet MM40 Block 3C anti-ship missiles and MU90 torpedoes, with hangar space for an NH90 helicopter. The design is built to handle both air-defence and anti-submarine missions from a single multi-role hull.
More than 75 Greek firms in the supply chain
Naval Group Hellas and more than 75 Greek companies take part in production and maintenance work under the programme. Naval Group also holds the initial in-service support contract for the Hellenic FDI fleet, which will be carried out jointly with Greek industrial partners.
Naval Group Chairman and CEO Pierre Éric Pommellet said at the ceremony that it was “an honour to deliver the second FDI frigate for the Hellenic Navy, HS Nearchos” to its new owners.
Why the Aegean balance matters here
Completing all four FDI frigates is widely seen as a major step toward strengthening the Hellenic Navy’s air-defence and surface-warfare capacity by the end of the decade. The programme stands as one of the largest naval industrial partnerships between France and Greece in recent years.
For NATO members monitoring the naval balance in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean, each FDI delivery serves as a concrete marker of how quickly regional fleets are being modernised. The next milestone will come with Formion’s delivery at the end of 2026, followed by the fourth and final hull in 2027.
Background: a 2021 strategic partnership
Greece’s FDI order traces back to a 2021 defence agreement that deepened Athens’ strategic partnership with Paris, under which Greece bundled both frigate and Rafale fighter jet purchases into a single package aimed at reinforcing its regional military posture.
For Naval Group, keeping Nearchos’s delivery on schedule while simultaneously building hulls for three different NATO navies is being read in the industry as an early sign that the FDI programme’s ambitious production timeline remains broadly on track.
Sources
- Naval News, “Hellenic Navy Receives Its Second FDI Frigate Built by Naval Group”, October 30, 2026 — navalnews.com (used for delivery details, technical specifications and official statements).
