Frigate Kanaris (F464) bids farewell to the Fleet at Salamis Naval Base: the end of an era for another Kortenaer

The frigate Kanaris (F464) has taken leave of the Fleet. The ceremony took place on Wednesday, November 4 at Salamis Naval Base, with the Hellenic Navy band accompanying the last act of a service of decades in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean.

“Another chapter in the history of the Hellenic Navy is completed,” says the Navy band’s post on the ship’s departure, noting that she leaves behind “a long course of service, missions and memories”.

One of the Fleet’s “Dutch” frigates

Kanaris belongs to the S-type frigates, the former Dutch Kortenaers that for years formed the backbone of the Hellenic Navy’s frigate force. The ships of the class have served in the Greek Fleet since 1982 and, together with Limnos and Elli, formed the Elli class. Greece acquired eight S-type ships from the Royal Netherlands Navy, named Adrias, Kanaris, Kountouriotis, Navarinon, Aigaion, Themistocles, Nikephoros Phokas and Bouboulina. Since 2004 six frigates of the type have gone through a modernisation programme that radically renewed their electronic systems.

The ship bears the name of Konstantinos Kanaris, the fireship captain of the 1821 Revolution, one of the most evocative names in Greek naval tradition. She was received by the Hellenic Navy on November 29, 2002, as the eighth S-type frigate of the Fleet, and is the fifth warship to honour his memory. During her service Kanaris took part in missions far from Greek waters. In 2021 she sailed to Haifa and joined the UNIFIL naval force off Lebanon, and the same year she escorted the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle and carried out a PASSEX exercise with the Egyptian frigate Alexandria.

The baton passes to the FDIs

Kanaris’s departure comes less than two weeks after the end of another frigate of the same class. The decommissioned Bouboulina (F463), which had been withdrawn in 2013 and used as a source of spare parts, was sunk on October 23 in the northern Cretan Sea, as a target for SPIKE NLOS and ER firings and finally by an SUT torpedo from a submarine.

Renewal of the Fleet now runs through the new FDI frigates. After Kimon, the Hellenic Navy received on October 30 in Lorient the second frigate of the series, Nearchos, with Formion and Themistocles to follow. As new ships enter the Fleet, older ones close their cycle, and Kanaris is the latest of them.