The christening of a warship - the German Navy has not experienced anything like this for a long time.

Such celebratory events will be more frequent again.

With the corvette "Köln" at Blohm+Voss in Hamburg, the first of five of these boats has been christened, which are currently being worked on by a working group of German naval shipyards.

"The Corvette Cologne will protect our lifestyle and our values, our country's territory and our alliance," said Henriette Reker, the mayor of Cologne, who acted as godmother.

Naval inspector Jan Christian Kaack described the corvette as an "urgently needed strengthening of the navy": "Ready for intensive combat, made for the current security situation."

Susanne Preuss

Business correspondent in Hamburg.

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At 89 meters long, a corvette is smaller than a frigate and therefore faster and more manoeuvrable.

Simtje Möller, Parliamentary State Secretary in the Defense Ministry, pointed out that the short-term reversal of the corvette Erfurt after the start of the Ukraine war to strengthen NATO's northern flank showed the German Navy's ability to react.

If the shipyards have their way, the next order from the Bundeswehr should be placed as soon as possible.

“We are in good practice, every move is in place, the vote is in place,” said Tim Wagner, head of the NVL Group, formerly Lürssen Defence, in his speech and later added to journalists: “I assume that a decision will be made promptly In addition to NVL, TKMS (Thyssen-Krupp Marine Systems) and GNYK (German Naval Yards Kiel) are involved in the consortium.

Beyond this cooperation, real consolidation among the German naval shipyards would make sense, NVL boss Wagner told the FAZ - so that one is competitive with the state-owned companies in neighboring European countries.

"We are ready to talk," said Wagner.

The plan to build 15 corvettes ultimately goes back to a concept from the mid-1990s.

The procurement contract for the first five corvettes was closed in 2001.

The order for the five boats now in the works was placed in 2017.

The keel laying, i.e. the start of construction, of the last corvette was a few weeks ago.

It will probably take until the end of 2026 for this boat to go into service, Wagner said.

“We are on schedule with the platforms.

But we have follow-up work on IT security.”

The order includes not only the design and construction of the boats, but also other services such as crew training.

NVL boss Wagner put the order volume at 2 billion euros.