French frigate Georges Leygues (D640)
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| Career |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | Georges Leygues |
| Laid down: | 16 September 1974 |
| Launched: | 17 December 1976 |
| Commissioned: | 10 December 1979 |
| Status: | in active service, as of 2012[update] |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Georges Leygues-class frigate |
| Displacement: | 3,550 t (3,494 long tons) 4,500 t (4,429 long tons) full load |
| Length: | 139 m (456 ft 0 in) |
| Beam: | 14 m (45 ft 11 in) |
| Height: | 39.36 m (129 ft 2 in) |
| Draught: | 5.8 m (19 ft 0 in) |
| Propulsion: | CODOG 2 × Pielstick PA 6 V280 STD diesels, 5,200 hp (3,878 kW) 2 × Rolls Royce Olympus TM3B gas turbines, 26,000 hp (19,388 kW) 2 shafts with 4-blade controllable pitch propellers |
| Speed: | 30 knots (35 mph; 56 km/h) on gas turbines 21 knots (24 mph; 39 km/h) on diesels |
| Range: | 1,000 nmi (1,900 km) at 30 kn (35 mph; 56 km/h) on gas turbines 10,000 nmi (19,000 km) at 15 kn (17 mph; 28 km/h) on diesels |
| Complement: | 20 officers 120 non-commissioned officers 95 men |
| Sensors and processing systems: |
Detection: • 1 Air/surface sentry radar DRBV51C • 1 Air sentry radar DRBV 26 • 1 Fire control radar DRBC 32E • 2 Navigation radar KH 1007 • 1 Hull sonar DUBV 23 • 1 Towed sonar DUBV 43C Tactical information: • SENIT 4 • SEAO/OPSMER |
| Electronic warfare and decoys: |
• 2 Radar interceptors ARBR 16 • 2 × Syllex chaff launchers |
| Armament: | Anti-air: • 1 × Crotale EDIR system - 8 missiles on launcher + 18 stored • 2 × Simbad systems - 2×2 Mistral missiles • 1 × CADAM 100 mm main gun • 2 × 20 mm guns • 4 × 12.7 mm machine guns Anti-surface: • 4 × Exocet MM38 missiles Anti-submarine: • 10 × L5 Mod4 torpedoes • 2 × L5 torpedo launchers |
| Aircraft carried: | 2 × Lynx WG13 Mk.4 helicopters, each with: • 1 × DUAV4 sonar • Rheseda system for transmission of acoustic data • 12 × Mark 46 torpedoes |
Georges Leygues (D640) is the lead ship of the F70 type anti-submarine frigate of the French Marine Nationale. She is the second French vessel named after the 19–20th century politician and Navy Minister, Georges Leygues. She is the tender for the helicopter cruiser Jeanne d'Arc.
[edit] Service history
In 1981, the Georges Leygues and the fleet escort Guépratte, cruising in front of an Allied fleet during training sessions, detected a Soviet submarine, which they chased for 19 hours. A rare instance of submarine warfare occurred, the Soviet submarine trying running at 28 knots and diving under the sonar of the Georges Leygues to try to avoid detection, before she was forced to surface, being formally identified as a Victor class submarine by the on-board Lynx WG13.
The same year, she intervened when the Iranian ship Tabarzin was captured by a commando hostile to the new regime, and sailed to France. The commando reached France and requested political refugee status, while the ship was returned to Iran.
From 1987, France and Iran having broken off diplomatic relations, the Georges Leygues escorted commercial ships in the Persian Gulf.
In 1992, the Georges Leygues took part in Operation Restore Hope in Somalia.
In 1999, she was partially modified to accommodate student officers, and started tending the Jeanne d'Arc in the context of the training voyages of the French Naval Academy. The same year, after catastrophic flooding occurred in Mozambique the two ships were re-routed to deliver humanitarian aid.
In early 2004, after the coup in Haiti, Jeanne d'Arc and Georges Leygues were re-routed to assist in the French intervention there. In December the same year, the two ships intervened in Indonesia after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake.
Note: The French navy doesn't use the term "destroyer" for its ships; hence some large ships, referred to as "frigates", are registered as destroyers.
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