Navantia and Kongsberg Naval Services signed a framework agreement in Bergen yesterday to cover support, maintenance, modifications and modernization work on the Royal Norwegian Navy’s F-310 Fridtjof Nansen frigates. The deal gives the two companies a stable, long-term contractual structure for the ships, with the Norwegian Defence Materiel Agency taking part institutionally.
Kongsberg Naval Services will act as the main contractor under the framework, while Navantia will serve as the designer, integrator and original equipment manufacturer of the frigates. Navantia said it will provide design and engineering support, platform know-how, modernization work and technical evolution work on the vessels.
The agreement is the third contract Navantia maintains in Norway tied to sustainment of the Nansen-class frigates. It follows a memorandum of understanding signed in March 2022, when Navantia and Kongsberg agreed to work together on support and modernization of the F-310 frigates, and an expansion in September 2023 to integrate Kongsberg’s NSM into current and future ships designed by Navantia.
The latest deal matters because it locks in the industrial chain behind a class of warships that Norway continues to keep in service. Navantia designed and built the F-310 Nansen-class frigates between 2006 and 2011, and the new framework deepens its role in the ships’ upkeep after years of incremental cooperation with Kongsberg.
For now, the key question is how quickly the framework turns into concrete work on the frigates themselves. The agreement lays out the relationship and the responsibilities, but the pace and scope of future modernization will show how far Norway intends to push the class in the years ahead.
