Early on in its career (and like her sisters), Bremen was outfitted with largely conventional projectile-minded weaponry. It wasn't until the mid-to-late 1970s, that the group was outfitted with more potent guided missiles to meet rising challenges at sea. This involved removal of one of its 100mm deck guns for installation of 2 x MM38 Exocet twin missile launchers. The Italian Breda Mod 64 40mm gun (in four twin-gunned mountings) succeeded the Bofors mounts. The torpedo launchers were subsequently welded over.
These changes also coincided with modifications to the bridge (enlarged windows) as well as the radar system (French F97 series) and operations sections of the warship. The edits were enough to warrant a revision of the class name to "Type 101A" as a result.
Bremen managed an active service life in the West German Navy - and onto the unified German Navy - until February 24th, 1994 to which point she was decommissioned from service. The last warship of the class to be retired was Schleswig-Holstein in December of that same year. The line was given up in the mid-1990s in favor of the more advanced and all-modern Brandenburg-class of fighting frigates - detailed elsewhere on this site.
In service, the class was derided for its top-heavy design which made for poor sea-keeping in rough waters. This was a design choice - and ultimate flaw - for speed and armament were the prized qualities of the new West German destroyer. To achieve this, the height and weight of the steel freeboards were reduced, creating a rather tall bridge superstructure in profile and this making the warship top-heavy. Early on, this was manageable as the warship was only to defend shipping lanes of the Baltic nations but all that changed when the class was pressed into service across the North Sea and its volatile wave action.
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