One month early, DCNS begins the sea trials of the Aquitaine, the first ship built under the FREMM multimission frigate programme. The campaign takes place off the Brittany peninsula and is expected to last several weeks including return trips to DCNS’s shipyard. Delivery to the French Navy is scheduled for 2012.

The joint crew comprising French Navy personnel, customer representatives and employees of DCNS and its partners will demonstrate the ship’s seakeeping and other nautical qualities as well as the performance of the propulsion and navigation systems.

FREMM frigates are among the most technologically advanced and competitively priced on the world market. These heavily armed warships are being built under DCNS prime contractorship to carry state-of-the-art weapons and systems including the Herakles multifunction radar, MdCN deep-strike cruise missiles, Aster anti-air missiles, Exocet MM40 anti-ship missiles and MU90 torpedoes.