The Type 751 Planet of the German Navy

German Navy

The German Navy is the navy of Germany and is part of the unified Bundeswehr .The German Navy traces its roots back to the Imperial Fleet of the revolutionary era of 1848 – 52 and more directly to the Prussian Navy, which later evolved into the Northern German Federal Navy...

 is the most modern naval research ship within NATO. It was built as SWATH

Small Waterplane Area Twin Hull

A Small Waterplane Area Twin Hull, better known by the acronym SWATH, is a twin-hull ship design that minimizes hull cross section area at the sea's surface. Minimizing the ship's volume near the surface area of the sea, where wave energy is located, maximizes a vessel's stability, even in high...

design in order to reduce the hull volume and to increase the ship's stability - particularly in high seas and at high speed.

It is used for geophysics and naval technology trials and research. While technically not armed, it is equipped with torpedo launch capability. Also other weapons systems can be installed for weapon trials.