MEKO
Family of warships
The MEKO family of warships was developed by the German company Blohm+Voss. MEKO is a registered trademark. The portmanteau stands for "Mehrzweck-Kombination" (English: multi-purpose-combination). It is a concept in modern naval shipbuilding based on modularity of armament, electronics and other equipment, aiming at ease of maintenance and cost reduction.
MEKO ships include families of frigates, corvettes and ocean-going patrol boats. Construction of MEKO ships began in the late 1970s with the design and later building of Nigeria's MEKO 360 H1. Vessels of similar classes use different weapons systems. For example, for the main gun, some MEKO 200s use the Mk 45 Mod 2 gun, others use the French 100 mm naval gun or Otobreda 76 mm gun.
The latest variant is the "Combat Ship for the Littorals" or MEKO CSL. It has also been called a "Littoral Combatant Ship", but it is much smaller than the American Littoral Combat Ship (LCS). There was speculation that this design would be of interest to Israel, but it was not. Ultimately however, Israel opted for four modified K130 Braunschweig-class corvettes, the first of which entered service in late 2020. The new variant is dubbed the Sa'ar 6-class corvette. Eight extended versions of MEKO A-100 frigate vessels are planned to be supplied for the Brazilian Navy. The consortium is formed by Germany's Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems, Embraer Defense & Security and Atech, a subsidiary of the Embraer Group. The construction of the vessels, which are more than 100 meters long, are planned for the Oceana shipyard in Itajaí.
01Models
The following MEKO models are known to have been built, organized by lineage and delivery dates:
- MEKO 360 (1981) is the earliest MEKO ship.
- MEKO 140 (1985) is designed as a companion ship of MEKO 360, developed from the Portuguese João Coutinho class corvettes.
- MEKO 200 (1987) is a frigate design. It evolved into the MEKO A-200 (2001) and the larger MEKO A-300 (planned for Greece and Poland).
- F123 (1994), F124 (2002), and F125 (2016) are a line of MEKO frigates developed for the German Navy.
- K130 (2008) is a corvette designed for the German Navy using some F124 technology.
- Israeli Sa'ar 6 (2021) is a heavily modified descendant.
- MEKO A-100 (2019) is a current design.
- The 2012 A-100 is a single corvette developed from the A-200. It is occasionally quoted as the same as the MEKO 100 RMN (2004).
- The current design is a family of three sizes (all heavier and longer than the 2012 A-100): corvette, light frigate, patrol corvette.
As of July 2026, the MEKO website showcases the follwoing models:
- MEKO A-100 Light Frigate.
- MEKO A-200 Frigate.
- MEKO A-400 AMD
02Vessels
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “MEKO”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- F221 Hessen-Kieler Woche 2007.jpg by Rebell18190 at English Wikipedia, Public domain
- NNS Aradu UK Defence Imagery Naval Bases image 04cropped.jpg by UK Government, OGL v1.0
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