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FGS Bremen (D181)

1964 COLD WAR

FGS Bremen (D181) History

During the height of the Cold War (1947-1991), the West German Navy was committed to building small destroyer warships. These would be the only ships of their kind built for the West German Navy at the time, designed to operate in the Baltic region, where the Soviet Navy posed the main threat. Four ships were eventually included in the later Hamburg class, including Bremen (D181), Schleswig-Holstein (D182), Bayern (D183) and Hesse (D184). The lead ship of the class, Bremen, was laid by the Stulcken shipyard in Hamburg on 29 January 1959 and launched on 26 March 1960.

She officially entered service on March 23, 1964, and served until the mid-1990s.

This class was eventually replaced ship-by-ship by the more advanced Brandenburg class, which entered service in the mid-1990s.

The Burger class is also known as the Type 101. The ships displace approximately 4,050 tons, have an overall length of 438.7 feet, a beam of 44 feet, and a draft of 15.8 feet. Power comes from 4 x Wahodag boiler units feeding 2 x steam based turbines producing 72,000 hp and driving 2 x axles under the stern.

In ideal conditions, the top speed can reach 35 knots and the range can be up to 3,400 nautical miles. The crew is 284 people. Airborne systems include three HSA fire control (FC) radars and 1BV2 sonar.

Regarding armament, Bremen received 3 x 100 mm /L55 caliber DCN main deck guns and turrets. This is supported by 4 x 40mm Bofors Anti-Aircraft (AA) guns. Additionally, there are 2 depth charge ramps for a total of 10 depth charges for submarine hunting.

Also carries 4 x 533mm torpedo tubes, which can disperse up to 90 mines from the ship. Bofors' 2 x 375mm quadruple launcher carries anti-submarine missiles (ASROC) for attacking near-surface submarines. 2 chaff dispensers of 20 barrels for dodging missiles.

Early in her career (like her sisters), Bremen was armed with traditional weapons mainly based on projectiles. It wasn't until the mid-to-late 1970s that the team was equipped with more powerful missiles to meet the growing challenges at sea. This involved removing one of its 100mm deck guns to install 2 x MM38 Exocet dual rocket launchers. The Italian Breda Mod 64 40mm guns (in four twin-gun compartments) replaced the Bofors compartments.

The torpedo launcher was then welded closed.

These changes also coincided with the modification of the bridge (enlarged windows) and the radar system (French F97 series) and operational parts of the warship. As a result, these changes were enough to justify changing the class name to "Type 101A".

Bremen served in the West German Navy and the unified German Navy until his retirement on 24 February 1994. The last ship of the class to be decommissioned was Schleswig-Holstein in December of the same year.

This line was abandoned in the mid-1990s and replaced by the more advanced and modern Brandenburg-class battle frigates - detailed elsewhere on this page.

In service, the class was derided for its top-heavy design, resulting in poor seaworthiness in rough waters. This was a design decision - and ultimately a mistake - as speed and armament were valuable attributes of the new West German destroyer. To achieve this, the height and weight of the steel freeboards were reduced, creating a rather tall bridge structure, making the warship top-heavy.

Initially this was manageable as the warship was only meant to defend the Baltic states' shipping lanes, but that all changed when the class entered service in the North Sea and its volatile ups and downs.