Keel Laying Ceremony for The First Merah Putih Frigate for the Indonesian Navy

A keel laying ceremony for the first Merah Putih (Red White) Frigate for the Indonesian Navy was held at the Indonesian shipyard PT PAL on Aug 25, 2023.

The keel laying process was officiated by Brig Gen TNI Heru Sudarminto, as the representative from Ministry of Defence Indonesia, and Iqbal Fikri, COO of PT PAL Indonesia.

The ceremony marked another milestone in the history of PT PAL as the Merah Putih Frigate will be the biggest frigate to be built at PT PAL as of today, with a displacement of 5,700 t.

The Merah Putih frigate design is based on the Type 31 frigate design designed by Babcock International, which marketed it as the Arrowhead 140 frigate design.

Babcock International has agreed to transfer the design to PT PAL under an agreement signed in Sept 2021.

The Merah Putih frigate had its ceremonial First Steel Cutting on Dec 9, 2022. PT PAL will build two Merah Putih frigates for the Indonesian Navy.

The Type 31 frigate or Inspiration class, and formerly known as the Type 31e frigate or General Purpose Frigate (GPF), is a planned class of frigate intended to enter service with the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy in the 2020s alongside the submarine-hunting Type 26 frigate. –adj/mhi (Pix: PT PAL)