BlueBrixx
BlueBrixx Warship Fregate 125 Set 102718
BlueBrixx's Warship Frigate 125 is a 1:300 model built from 1,047 blocks. Designed by Ralf. Age 14+. Instructions are supplied as a free download after registering on the BlueBrixx website.
The ship that was sent back
In December 2017 the German navy did something it had never done before: it refused delivery of a warship and returned it to the shipyard.
The ship was the Baden-WΓΌrttemberg, first of the F125 class. Sea trials found a persistent list to starboard, software that did not work as specified, and a list of defects long enough that the navy declined to accept her. She went back to Blohm+Voss and was finally commissioned in June 2019, roughly six years late.
The episode became a minor political scandal and a standing example in German defence procurement debates.
What the class was actually trying to do
The F125 is an unusual design and the trouble came partly from how ambitious it was.
Conventional warships deploy for months and then need a long refit. The F125 was built for two-year deployments, staying on station continuously with crews flown out and rotated every four months. That required a level of automation no previous German warship had: a crew of around 120 on a 7,000-tonne ship, where a comparable frigate would carry twice that.
It also meant designing for stabilisation and intervention duties β piracy, embargo enforcement, evacuation β rather than for fighting other navies. The class has no anti-submarine capability at all, which is a startling omission on paper and a deliberate choice about what the ships were for.
Whether that was the right bet is still argued about, and events since 2022 have made the argument sharper.
Specifications
Pieces: 1,047 Β· Scale: 1:300 Β· Designer: Ralf Β· Series: BlueBrixx-Specials Β· Age: 14+ Β· Instructions as free download
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