a contract of €3.5 billion for development and the first eight hulls, with options for nine more costing €2.95 billion split over two tranches (totaling 17). Following the cancellation of the third and fourth of the Horizon-class frigates in 2005 on budget grounds, requirements for an air-defence derivative of the FREMM called FREDA were placed – with DCNS coming up with several proposals. Expectations were that the last two ships of the 17 FREMM planned would be built to FREDA specifications; however, by 2008 the plan was revised down to just 11 FREMM (9 ASW variants and 2 FREDA variants) at a cost of €8.75 billion (FY13, ~US$12 billion). The 11 ships would cost €670 million (~US$760m) each in FY2014, or €860m (~US$980m) including development costs. The 2013 White Paper on Defence and National Security committed France to 15 front-line frigates, which was initially interpreted as 2 Horizons, 5 s and a reduction in the FREMM fleet down to 8 ships. The 2014–2019 defence plan restated a target of 11 frigates; of which six ASW FREMM variants would be delivered to replace the Georges Leygues-class frigates by 2019, followed by two anti-air variants to replace the ageing Cassard-class frigates and a decision was to have been taken in 2016 on what version the remaining three would be. In 2014, the French Navy's Chief of Staff, Admiral Bernard Rogel, confirmed that 11 FREMM frigates had been ordered but in 2015 the order was cut to 8 in order to allow for the introduction of five FTI mid-Size frigates from 2024. The FTI will replace the La Fayette class in "first-rank" roles, with three of the La Fayettes also being fitted with active sonar and other improvements so as to extend their service life into the early 2030s. On 16 April 2021 the French Navy received Alsace, the first of the two air defence FREMM frigates ordered. The primary role of the naval vessel is planned to be conducting the anti-aircraft defense of critical units such as the and Mistral class landing helicopter docks. Besides being equipped with Aster 15 and Aster 30 surface-to-air missiles, the ship holds Exocet MM 40 anti-ship missiles and the MU 90 torpedo system. Export United States On 10 July 2017, it was reported that the United States Congress was interested in foreign designs such as the Fincantieri FREMM for the US Navy's FFG(X) Program. According to