French Frigate Georges Leygues

French Frigate Georges Leygues

Country: France

Type: Frigate

Service: 1979 - 2008

Ships in class: 7

The Georges Leygues class (Type F70) is a class of anti-submarine frigates of the French Navy. They are multi-role frigates armed with Exocet SSM and Crotale anti-aircraft missiles, making them suitable for defense of strategic positions, demonstrations, or highseas escorts. The superstructures were built as to optimise resistance against nuclear explosion blasts. The last three ships of the class had their bridges raised one deck to overcome problems experienced by the first four in bad weather, as well as being equipped with DSBV 61 passive linear towed array sonar and several other upgraded systems. All seven Georges Leygues class frigates are in active service with France.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Displacement:	4,500 tons
Length:	139 m
Beam:	14 m
Draught:	5.7 m
Propulsion:	CODOG 2 x Rolls-Royce Olympus TM3B gas turbines 2 x SEMT Pielstick 16PA6-V280 diesel engines 52,000/10.400 bhp
Speed:	30 knots
Range:	8,500 miles
Complement:	235
Armament:	Crotale Navale EDIR octuple launcher (26 x surface-to-air missiles) 4 x MM38/MM40 Exocet anti-ship missiles 2 x Simbad twin launcher (Mistral surface-to-air missiles) 1 x Creusot Loire Compact 100mm/55 Mod 68 DP gun 2 x 30 mm Breda-Mauser or 20mm F2 anti-aircraft guns 2/4 x 12.7 machine guns 2 x fixed torpedo tubes (10 x L5 mod 4 or MU 90 torpedoes)
Aircraft carried:	2 x Westland Lynx helicopters