The French Navy (Marine Nationale) surveillance frigate Prairial (F 731) was seen entering San Diego harbor on 21 February 2024 as the ship was making a swing through the eastern Pacific.
Unusually, Prairial was not displaying her “F 731” pennant number on the hull and stern but had it painted out, along with her name usually displayed on each side of the hull aft. The ship was also “spoofing” her identity on the AIS Automatic Identification System, portraying herself as the local Mexican passenger vessel Elobey XI. She did, however, prominently display signal flags signifying her correct international call sign, FARP.
The move behind hiding pennant numbers (and likely spoofing AIS) is to make it more difficult to identify French Navy ships. It first started as an experimentation in 2022 and is the brainchild of the current “ALOPS”, Read Admiral Xavier Petit, in charge of French naval operations and intelligence. Contacted by Naval News in 2022 for comments, a Marine Nationale PAO explained that the move is part of an “experimentation aimed at making it more difficult to identify French Navy ships via OSINT and other means”. This is part of a new initiative to “create an informational fog of war targeted against our competitors”. This has now been applied fleetwide, including for vessels based in French overseas territories like Prairial.
After leaving San Diego on 26 February, Prairial headed north to call at the Canadian Navy’s Pacific naval base in Esquimalt, British Columbia from 2-6 March, then exercised with Canadian Navy ships before heading to Pearl Harbor. Prairial is currently commanded by Commandant Alexis Golinish.
Based in Papeete, French Polynesia, Prairial routinely carries out a wide range of duties including policing and protecting fisheries and marine areas and combating human trafficking.
Prairial is the second of six Floréal-class frigates, all built by Chantiers de l’Atlantique at Saint Nazaire (Western France), and was commissioned in May 1992. The ships displace nearly 3,000 tonnes full load, with an overall length of 93.5 meters/306.8 feet and a beam of 14 meters/45.9 feet. Fitted with a 100mm/55 MOD 68 CADAM gun forward, the ships used to mount two missile canisters for Exocet MM38 anti-ship missiles but these have been phased out in 2015. The primary sensor is a DRBV 21C d-band air search radar. The frigates feature combined diesel and diesel (CODAD) propulsion with a top speed of about 20 knots. They have an endurance of 10,000 nautical miles at 15 knots and can carry provisions to operate up to 50 days at a time. At the time of the visit to San Diego Prairial was carrying a Eurocopter AS565 Panther helicopter, not visible in these images.
Prairial rounding North Island to head down San Diego Bay and pass the famous Fly Navy lighted sign at Naval Air Station North Island.
The tower at right is the headquarters building of Naval Air Station North Island, dating from the 1930s.
At left is the US Navy hospital ship USNS Mercy (T-AH 19), who returned 12 February from a four-month Pacific Partnership mission to the South Pacific.
The diminutive Prairial passing ships at North Island, including the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) at center and the expeditionary base ship John L. Canley (ESB 6), commissioned February 17 in a ceremony at North Island.
As Prairial passes the Abraham Lincoln it’s clear the ship’s identifying pennant number and name have been painted out.
Xavier Vavasseur contributed to this story
