Romanian frigate Regele Ferdinand

Operational Service

Royal Navy

Between 1990 and 1996 Coventry was the leader of the 1st Frigate Squadron. The ship received the freedom of the city of Coventry in 1988.

Romanian Navy

She was purchased from the United Kingdom by the Romanian Navy on 14 January 2003, and renamed Regele Ferdinand (King Ferdinand) after Ferdinand I of Romania. The ship was handed over to Romania on 19 August 2004, and underwent sea trials at the same time. Regele Ferdinand was commissioned into the Romanian Navy on 9 September 2004 with the pennant number F221, and is the current flagship of the Romanian Navy. There has since been some controversy over the price at which she was bought.

On 22 March 2011, President of Romania Traian Băsescu said, after a CSAT meeting, that Romania will send the frigate Regele Ferdinand with 205 mariners and two officers on board to enforce an arms embargo in the Mediterranean Sea, as part of the 2011 military intervention in Libya - Operation Unified Protector. During their run in the NATO naval group acting on Operation Unified Protector - 2011, the frigate has traveled over 17400 nmi and carried out around 770 specific tasks.

Since entry into service of the Romanian Navy, Regele Ferdinand has performed a series of tasks among which the most important are deployments to Operation Active Endeavour in 2005, 2007, 2008, 2010 in the Mediterranean Sea, the exercise in Bulgaria "Breeze -CertExam" 2007, 2008, the exercise "Noble Midas" in Croatia in 2007 and 2008 in Italy.

Since 13 September 2012 Regele Ferdinand has participated in Operation Atalanta. The ship embarked naval commandos of Grupul Naval de Forțe pentru Operații Speciale (GNFOS).

In August 2014, Regele Ferdinand sailed alongside Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 Task Unit 2 which operated in the Black Sea as part of Exercise Sea Breeze.

In July 2019, the Romanian authorities announced the selection of Naval Group and its partner Santierul Naval Constanta (SNC) for the programme to build four new Gowind multi-mission corvettes and to modernise the T22 frigates.

Romanian authorities are currently working in collaboration with the Romanian to replace two of the Rolls-Royce gas turbine engines with two ST40M turbine engines designed at COMOTI.

While the ship type was designed to employ both Sea Wolf and Exocet missiles, as of 2025 Romania does not possess these two types of missiles.

Gallery

File:HMS Coventry F98.jpg|HMS Coventry (F98), conducts an underway replenishment while on station in the Persian Gulf. File:161029-N-ZE250-034 (30765229502).jpg|The Romanian Navy frigate Regele Ferdinand (F221) approaches USS Carney (DDG-64) to conduct replenishment-at-sea training in the Black Sea 28 Oct. 2016. File:Regele Ferdinand 26.jpg|Navy helicopter landing on Regele Ferdinand.

References

References

1. {{Whatdotheyknow.com. https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/893924/response/2137624/attach/3/FOI449271797%20Honorary%20Freedom%20of%20the%20City.pdf. List of Honorary Freeman of the City of Coventry. 893924. Coventry City Council. 8 October 2022
2. Evans, Rob. (13 June 2006). "We paid three times too much for UK frigates, Romania says". The Guardian.
3. (22 March 2011). "Traian Basescu: Romania va trimite fregata Regele Ferdinand cu 205 militari in Mediterana pentru operatiuni de blocare a oricarei nave suspecte ca transporta armament". HotNews.ro.
4. [http://www.agerpres.ro/media/index.php/politic/item/75046.html] {{webarchive. link. (20 December 2011)
5. Martinescu, Darius. (12 September 2012). ""Regele Ferdinand" a plecat la război în Golful Aden". Romania Libera.
6. Pugliese, David. (6 January 2015). "HMCS Fredericton arrives in Portugal, HMCS Toronto to be back in Canada in late January". Ottawa Citizen.
7. (2021). "Automation control for revamping the propulsion system of a navy frigate". Scientific Bulletin - "Politehnica" University of Bucharest.