Horizon-class frigate
2005 class of French frigates
The Horizon class (French: Classe Horizon; Italian: Classe Orizzonte) is a class of air-defence destroyers in service with the French and Italian navies. They are designated as destroyers by the Italians and are referred to as "frigates" by the French but nonetheless also use the NATO classification "D" intended for destroyers. The programme started as the Common New Generation Frigate (CNGF), a three-nation collaboration between France, the United Kingdom, and Italy to develop a new generation of air-defence warships. Differing national requirements, workshare disagreements and delays led to the UK withdrawing from the project in 1999 to develop the Type 45 destroyer.
The FREMM multipurpose frigate were built using the same company structure as the Horizon project.
Development
France, Italy, and the UK issued a joint requirement in 1992 after the failure of the NATO Frigate Replacement for the 90s (NFR-90) project. In July 1993, the three countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding for a Common New Generation Frigate (CNGF). The ships were to be armed with the Principal Anti Air Missile System (PAAMS). The UK intended to purchase twelve ships to replace its Type 42 destroyers. France was to purchase four to replace its Suffren class, and Italy would purchase six to replace its Andrea Doria and Audace-class ships.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Horizon-class frigate” as 2005 class of French frigates. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1475090. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1999, 1992 and 1993.
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This entry incorporates text from “Horizon-class frigate” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.