NVL Group

NVL is the warship half of the Lürssen shipbuilding business, given its own brand and management in October 2021 when the Bremen group put a wall between the yards that build fighting ships and the ones that build superyachts. The initials stand for Naval Vessels Lürssen. Four yards sit under it. Peene-Werft in Wolgast and Blohm+Voss in Hamburg take newbuild work, while Norderwerft in Hamburg and Neue Jadewerft in Wilhelmshaven handle repair, refit and overhaul, thirteen docks between them. Around 2,100 people work across the group, on revenue of roughly one billion euros in 2024. Rheinmetall agreed to buy the business in September 2025 and closed the purchase in early 2026, since when the yards have run as its Naval Systems division.

The German Navy is the anchor customer, and the way a single hull travels between the sites explains how the group is wired. On the second batch of K130 Braunschweig-class corvettes, boats six to ten, Peene-Werft builds the stern sections, bow sections arrive from Kiel or Bremen, and the two halves are joined and fitted out at Blohm+Voss. The F126 frigate programme runs the same route, with Peene-Werft cutting stern steel and Blohm+Voss handling final outfitting, commissioning and sea trials under Dutch prime contractor Damen. NVL also holds the build contract for three Class 424 fleet service ships, the 132 metre signals intelligence vessels replacing the ageing Oste class, signed in 2023 against a programme volume of up to 3.26 billion euros. Peene-Werft covers 250,000 square metres with two production lines, a 175 metre dry dock and a ship lift, and employs over 330 people. Neue Jadewerft, with two floating docks and around 130 staff, keeps F122 Bremen-class, F123 Brandenburg-class and F124 Sachsen-class frigates, minehunters and support ships in service, while Blohm+Voss brings Elbe 17, one of the largest graving docks in northern Europe.

Export work goes through partner yards and local companies rather than towing hulls out of Hamburg. Bulgaria's two MMPV 90 multipurpose modular patrol vessels are being built at Varna with MTG Dolphin, supported by Naval Technology Bulgaria, the first of them, Hrabri, starting sea trials late in 2025. Muara Maritime Services covers Brunei, where four Darussalam-class offshore patrol vessels entered service from 2011, and the group also runs NVL d.o.o. in Croatia and NVL Egypt. Australia sat on that map until Civmec bought the local arm in June 2025, though the Arafura-class offshore patrol vessels being built there still descend from the same OPV80 design. Frankenthal-class minehunters and a long tail of older Lürssen patrol craft keep the service side busy. Alongside the steel, NVL Services sells the unglamorous half of naval procurement: spare parts, technical documentation, crew training, maintenance, repair, mid-life upgrades of ships other yards built, digital fleet-status tooling and an ISR as a Service offering, plus infrastructure advice and local consultancy for customers standing up their own support bases. Coastguard variants of the patrol designs round out the catalogue.