French frigate La Motte-Picquet

La Motte-Picquet is a F70 type anti-submarine frigate of the French Navy. She is the fourth French vessel named after the 18th Century admiral count Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte. As of January 2012 she was serving in the Persian Gulf. The ship was decommissioned in November 2020.[2]

For other ships with the same name, see French ship La Motte-Picquet.
History
France
Name: La Motte-Picquet
Namesake: Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte
Builder: Brest arsenal
Laid down: 12 February 1982
Launched: 6 February 1985
Commissioned: 18 February 1988
Out of service: November 2020[1]
Status: Retired
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:
Speed:
  • 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph) on gas turbines
  • 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph) on diesels
Range:
  • 1,000 nmi (1,900 km; 1,200 mi) at 30 kn (56 km/h; 35 mph) on gas turbines
  • 10,000 nmi (19,000 km; 12,000 mi) at 15 kn (28 km/h; 17 mph) 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
& 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

Service history

On 22 August 2007, she took custody of the Danish freighter Danica White which had been captured by pirates on 3 June.

2011/12 tour

She left Brest on 9 November 2011 for active duty in the Indian Ocean and was refuelled by the US replenishment ship USNS Patuxent on 10 January 2012.[3] On 22 January she passed through the Straits of Hormuz with the British frigate HMS Argyll and a US battlegroup centred on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln.[4]

Opération Chammal

In November 2015, a French Navy press release stated that La Motte-Picquet will be part of the Charles de Gaulle task force launching strikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant starting January 2016.[5]

Tracking Russian warships

In March 2016, La Motte-Picquet shadowed the Russian destroyer Vice-Admiral Kulakov, an oiler and a tugboat as it passed near French waters.[6]

British-French CJEF

In April 2016, La Motte-Picquet was part of the Anglo-French CJEF exercise.[7]

  • The F70 type frigates are equipped with a Variable Depth Sonar type DUBV43 or DUBV43C.
  • Operational Center of La Motte-Picquet (7 February 2001).
  • Gunnery crew of La Motte-Picquet, in front of the Crotale anti-air missile launcher
  • Shooting exercises with an ANF1, from the bridge.
  • WEAPONS crew of La Motte-Picquet.
  • Patch of La Motte Picquet.
  • La Motte-Picquet in Cobh, Ireland, 12 June 2014.
  • La Motte-Picquet in Cobh, Ireland, 12 June 2014.

References
  1. https://www.facebook.com/seawavesmag/posts/10158614500621250
  2. https://www.facebook.com/seawavesmag/posts/10158614500621250
  3. "Un pétrolier américain ravitaille la frégate La Motte-Picquet". French Ministry of Defence. 11 January 2012.
  4. Stringer, David (24 January 2012). "UK could send more navy assets to Strait of Hormuz". Associated Press.
  5. "Mission Arromanches 2 : Déploiment du GAN en Méditerranée orientale et dans l'Océan Indien". colsbleus.fr (in French). 18 November 2015. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
  6. "HMS Somerset's tsar turn as she spends Easter monitoring Russian task group". Royal Navy. 30 March 2016. Archived from the original on 10 April 2016. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
  7. "UK and France launch rapid deployment exercise". Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom). 10 April 2016. Retrieved 10 April 2016.
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