The F124 Sachsen class is the German Navy's latest class of highly advanced air-defense frigates. The design of the Sachsen-class frigate is based on that of the F123 but with enhanced stealth features designed to deceive an opponent's radar and acoustic sensors. The class incorporates an advanced multifunction radar APAR and a SMART-L long-range radar which is purported to be capable of detecting stealth aircraft and stealth missiles. Although designated as frigates, they are comparable to destroyers in capability and were intended to replace the Navy's . They are similar to the Dutch , in that both are based on the use of a common primary anti-air warfare system built around the APAR and SMART-L radars as well as the area-defence SM-2 Block IIIA and point-defence Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile (ESSM) surface-to-air missiles. The German government contracted for three ships in June 1996 with an option on a fourth that was provisionally to have been named Thüringen, but the option for this fourth ship was not taken up. At €2.1 billion for the three ships, the class was one of the most expensive ship building programs of the German Navy. Design Following the reunification of Germany in 1990 at the end of the Cold War, the German Navy continued the construction program of the former Bundesmarine (Federal Navy), which projected a fleet centered on destroyers and frigates. The Sachsen class was the second group of frigates to be built in the post-unification era, following the s laid down in the early 1990s. The three Sachsens were ordered to replace the old s that were then over thirty years old. General characteristics and machinery The ships of the Sachsen class are long at the waterline and long overall. They have a beam of and a draft of , though the draft increases to at the sonar array in the bulbous bow. They displace at full load. Steering is controlled by a single roll-stabilized rudder; the ships have a turning radius of . The frigates have a crew of 38 officers, 64 petty officers, and 140 enlisted sailors. They have accommodations for an additional thirteen officers and sailors as part of a squadron commander's staff, and they have crew provisions for female sailors. The ships can remain at sea for 21 days at a time. The ships' hulls were designed on the pattern of the previous Brandenburg class to allow for great