GE press release
It follows the contract signed in 2020 between GE Power Conversion and Chantiers de l’Atlantique to provide systems for the four LSS to be built by the Shipyard for the French Navy, under the contract management of the Organisation for Joint Armament Co-operation (OCCAR), on behalf of the French Armament General Directorate (Direction Générale de l’Armement).
The LSS main mission is to provide logistical support to deployed naval forces. It will replace the current single-hull oil tankers, which have been in service since the 1970’s and 1980’s. The four supply ships will be delivered by 2029.
By equipping these vessels with control systems similar to those installed on board other French Navy surface ships, propelled with GE solutions, the fleet will have commonalities – thereby simplifying management and maintenance for the customer.
“Electrical propulsion for naval vessels is a major trend in the maritime marketplace. With this contract, we are seeing that it is also reaching military logistics ships.” said Philippe Piron, President & CEO of GE Power Conversion. “Installing high-power electrical grids on ships is essential not only for power generation and propulsion, but also for supplying operational on-board mission systems that increasingly require electrical power. We are delighted to be able to offer our most innovative systems in terms of propulsion and power management systems to the French Navy for its future combat vessels.”
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About BRF / Chevallier-class Replenishment Tanker
The construction of the first of four new replenishment tankers / supply vessels for the French navy (Marine Nationale) started in May 2020 at the Chantiers de l’Atlantique shipyard in cooperation with Naval Group. The future vessels will be known as the Jacques Chevallier-class.
Chantiers de l’Atlantique and Naval Group were awarded a contract for the construction of four supply vessels in January 2019. The vessels are set to be delivered between the end of 2022 and 2029. It is part of a Franco-Italian program led by OCCAR (Organisation Conjointe de Coopération en matière d’Armement – Organisation for Joint Armament Co-operation), on behalf of the French defense procurement agency (DGA) and its Italian counterpart NAVARM. As such, the design of the French BRF design is based on the Italian Navy LSS (Vulcano-class) designed by Fincantieri.
Safran Electronics & Defense was selected to supply the PASEO XLR extra long-range naval optronic identification & fire control system while to all four vessels of the class, while Vestdavit has won a tender from Chantiers de l’Atlantique to supply the davit systems for the BRFs. The RAPIDFire naval gun system developed by the consortium formed by Thales and Nexter has been chosen as the main artillery and CIWS for the class (two systems per ship).
Main characteristics of the BRF vessels
Gross tonnage: 28,700 GRT
Displacement at full load: 31,000 tonnes
Overall length: 194 m
Overall width: 27.60 m
Crew capacity: 190 people (including 130 crew members and capacity for 60 passengers)
Total deadweight: 14,870 tonnes
Freight volume: 13,000 m3
Total installed capacity: 24 MW
Artillery: 40 mm guns
Polaris® Combat Management System
