The latest ships to enter service with the French Navy, or in French, Marine Nationale, is the logistic supply ship FS Jacques Chevalier (A725), which will call at Cape Town on Thursday this week.
The ship is likely to remain in port until 12 December.
The first-in-class vessel was formally delivered to the Marine Nationale on 18 July this year, having already carried out several replenishment exercises on navy ships, including the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle and one of the frigates.
The class of ships – four are planned – are second in size only to Charles de Gaulle.
Jacques Chevalier was constructed in Saint-Nazaire, at Chantiers de l’Atlantique, as will her three sister ships. Steel cutting took place in May 2020, with a floating hull section being built in Italy at Fincantieri.
Jacques Chevalier set out in late September on her first operational deployment into the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. The three-month deployment is intended to verify the military characteristics of the vessel, in particular its endurance, its ability to navigate in hot and cold waters and its interoperability with partners and allies.
The four replenishment ships, or Bâtiment Ravitailleur de Forces (BRF) will replace the French Navy’s Durance-class tankers, which were built between 1973–1990. Each will have a capacity of 31 000 tons of fuel, ammunition, spare parts, as well as supplies to enable long-range operations by the French Navy.
Dimensions
Length: 194 m
Beam: 27.4 m
Draught: 9 m
Gross tonnage: 28 700 grt
Displacement: 16 000 tons empty, 31 000 tons full load
Crew: 130 crew, with up to 60 passengers
Diesel-electric propulsion
Capacity: 13 000 m3 (3,400,000 US gal) of fuel
Speed: 20 knots, 10 knots on electric engines
Range: 7 000 nautical miles at 16 knots
Endurance: 30 days
Armament: 2 × twin Simbad-RC/Mistral Mk3 SAM/SSM; 2 × Thales/Nexter 40mm RAPIDFire guns
Written by Africa Ports & Ships and republished with permission. The original article can be found here.
