On November 19, Norway announced that it would select its new frigates from among American, British, French and German designs. It also announced that the final selection would be announced in 2025. The frigate designs that will compete for the Norwegian program are the American “Constellation” class, the British Type-26, the French FDI and the German F-126. Norway has announced that it will proceed with the construction of five new frigates (with an option for a sixth ship), which will replace the four in service “Fridtjof Nansen” class frigates. Norway wants the new frigates to be multi-role, that is, able to perform anti-aircraft/anti-missile, surface operations, anti-submarine operations and operations to attack land targets. Also, the Norwegian frigates should have a large armament and an operational life of 30 years, with a need to upgrade the average life to 15 years of service. In March 2023, the Norwegian Navy proposed the early retirement of the four Fridtjof Nansens in service and their replacement by new frigates. The Fridtjof Nansens are descended from the Spanish F-100 frigates of the Álvaro de Bazán class, and were commissioned into the Norwegian Navy between 2003 and 2011 (one ship was lost in an accident in June 2019).
