Frigate of the French Navy
|
| 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 |
| Decommissioned | 13 October 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 (subsequently converted to MM40 Block 2 SSM)[2]
- 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
|
La Motte-Picquet was a F70 type anti-submarine frigate of the French Navy. She was the fourth French vessel named after the 18th Century admiral count Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte. As of January 2012[update] she was serving in the Persian Gulf. The ship was decommissioned in October 2020.[3]
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.[4] 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.[5]
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.[6]
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.[7]
British-French CJEF
In April 2016, La Motte-Picquet was part of the Anglo-French CJEF exercise.[8]
