Why F128 was not recommended as Belgium's immediate alternative

Why not recommend F128 to Belgium as a replacement for its ASWF programme?

Its design and weapons fit were still changing too quickly to recommend as a settled purchase, despite confidence that it would become a good ship.

At the time of the episode, Belgium is understood to remain involved in and evaluating the ASWF programme. F128 inspires confidence, but its rapidly changing design prevents an immediate recommendation that Belgium buy it. The German programme's reported sequence is steel cutting in February, first laying-down in May and funding approval in July. A September decision is said to expand the purchase to eight ships. Weapons selections and other design details remain unsettled in this account. The MEKO basis supplies confidence that decisions can be incorporated as the programme develops. Responding rapidly to the F126 crisis is understandable, but an unfinished weapons fit leaves too little certainty for a settled purchase recommendation.