Less than a year after the German Bremen-class frigate FGS Karlsruhe returned from her last operational deployment, the navy announced it would sink the 35-year-old ship in upcoming tests.
According to the navy, Karlsuhe will be detonated in the Baltic Sea sometime in 2018 after being fitted with various sensors and dummies.
The series of explosions and firings will be used to gain knowledge on the safety of sailors during deployments, the navy said.
According to the German news site Kieler Nachrichten, the navy also plans to asses how asymmetric threats affect the ship. For these tests, the navy plans to use smaller weapons and rockets as they are used by terrorists and pirates.
FGS Karlsruhe was decommissioned in June 2017 and will be replaced by the first F125 frigate Baden-Württemberg .
Of the eight Bremen-class frigates which entered service with the German Navy between 1982 and 1990, only FGS Lübeck and FGS Augsburg remain in service.