The event took place on 1 February 2022 in Fincantieri’s Castellammare di Stabia shipyard. This section is scheduled to be delivered in 2025 at Chantiers de l’Atlantique shipyard in Saint-Nazaire, France. The first ship-in-class, Jacques Chevallier, is currently in final assembly and had its keel laying ceremony in late December 2021.
Fincantieri is building the forwards sections of the French vessels while Chantiers de l’Atrlantique builds the aft sections and is in charge of the overall production and outfitting. Naval Group is the prime contractor. They will all be built at the Castellammare di Stabia shipyard with deliveries scheduled between 2021 and 2027. This cooperation between Chantiers de l’Atlantique and Fincantieri is part of the broader Franco-Italian alliance in the naval surface ship domain.
The Franco-Italian LSS Programme led by OCCAR on behalf of DGA, the French Armament General Directorate, and its Italian counterpart, NAVARM, consists of the development and construction of five Logistic Support Ships (LSS), along with the In-Service support.
In total, the OCCAR LSS’s portfolio consists of 6 units (+1 option), as follows:
- For Italy, 1 in service (ITS “Vulcano”), 1 on order, 1 in option;
- For France, 4 FL LSS ordered by OCCAR to the temporary consortium between Chantiers de l’Atlantique and Naval Group and destined to the French Navy.
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). GE is providing the propulsion systems (MV7000 drives) of the vessels.
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
