Germany Detains Two Foreigners Over Alleged Sabotage of New Corvettes

Germany has detained two foreign nationals accused of attempting to sabotage new corvettes being built for the country’s navy.

Politico reported on this.

According to the Hamburg prosecutor’s office, the suspects are a 37-year-old Romanian citizen and a 54-year-old Greek citizen who worked at the Blohm+Voss shipyard.

The men were detained in Hamburg and in a town in Greece on warrants issued by the German prosecutor’s office.

Law enforcement officers also searched the suspects’ homes in Hamburg, Romania, and Greece.

The German Federal Prosecutor’s Office suspects the men of performing acts of sabotage on several corvettes under construction for the navy at the shipyard in 2025.

Investigators allege they poured more than 20 kilograms of sandblasting material into the engines. They are also accused of other acts, including damaging freshwater pipes.

The suspects are further alleged to have removed fuel tank caps and disabled safety switches in the ships’ electronic systems.

According to prosecutors, these actions could have caused significant damage to the corvettes or at least delayed their delivery to the navy, thereby posing a risk to Germany’s security.

The sabotage was discovered only during an inspection aboard the corvette F266 Emden ahead of its first departure in mid-January last year. Investigators are also seeking to determine who may have ordered the acts.

Emden

The Emden corvette was launched in early May 2023 at the Blohm+Voss shipyard, after which outfitting and trials continued.

The vessel is one of five new Braunschweig-class (K130) corvettes ordered by the German Navy in 2017 under a contract worth about €2 billion.

The main armament of the corvette F266 Emden consists of a 76 mm OTO Melara gun and RBS-15 anti-ship missiles.