There are some things mixed up:

1.) It is correct that these two German ships are not typical NATO fighting ships.

2.) Baden-Württemberg was designed as blue-water, long range, long endurance patrol ship for out of area deployments (similar to the Italian Thaon di Revel class in the Light version). She was optimised for typical tasks of NATO ships before 2014, e.g. hunting pirates, terrorists and weapon smugglers in the Indian Ocean. Therefore, she lacks the ability to defend a convoy against air attacks. Baden-Württemberg has only two RAM launchers and several small guns defend herself against air attacks. To be able to defend merchant shipping (and replenishment ship Frankfurt am Main she was deployed with to the Pacific), she needs additional anti-air missiles, e.g. ESSM or IRIS-T. There are discussions to add these, but it was not yet done. The class is neither designed for, nor it is capable of coastal defence.

3.) The German navy - as many other NATO navies - dismantled most of its abilities for coastal defence, e.g. there are no FACs and minelayers anymore and the number of submarines was reduced. The German navy today is not optimised for coastal defence. Today, there are only the Type 212A submarines and the corvettes of the Braunschweig class remaining for that task. Both classes are larger than their predecessors to be able to be used also for out-of-area deployments (i.e. less optimal for coastal defence!). Most German ships are designed for blue water operations, whereas since the Russian war of aggression there is an increasing need also to be able to defend the coast. There are only few NATO navies designed coastal defence, e.g. the Finnish and Swedish navies.

4.) In contrast to the Baden-Württemberg class - designed as large patrol ship - the other existing German frigates as well as the next two frigate classes - Niedersachsen class (F 126) and F 127 - are designed as multi-purpose blue water fighting ships. One of the existing frigates, Hessen, was deployed in early 2024 to defend merchant ships against Huthi attacks and shot down several Huthi drones and missiles. Her sistership Hamburg should have been used now for the same mission, but currently stays in the Mediterranean to help defend Israel in case of a large-scale Iranian attack - one of the reasons for the lack of NATO ships defending merchant ships against Huthi attacks.