Update July 7, 2024:
French Navy headquarters told Naval News that FREMM Frigate Bretagne (D655) will not participate in a live missile firing. While this was initially planned, it was decided that the frigate would focus instead on anti-submarine warfare (ASW) during RIMPAC 2024. “The philosophy of our training, especially the expensive ones with missiles, is to go and find the “limits of the domains” and not to make the missiles engagements too easy. By “limits of the domains” we mean in terms of speed, altitude and range. And at RIMPAC these conditions were not met” French Navy HQ told us, adding that with the many live Aster missile engagements in the Red Sea since November 2023, the Marine Nationale received plenty of data from actual operations.
End of update. Original article is below:
As we initially reported a year ago, a Marine Nationale FREMM will take part in RIMPAC. This is significant as it will mark a first. What’s more: The anti-submarine warfare (ASW) frigate is set to shoot a missile against a target, marking another first for the French Navy off Hawaii.
First FREMM at RIMPAC
For the first time ever, the French Navy will participate to RIMPAC with a vessel based in mainland France. According to information obtained by Naval News over the past few months, from both French and US Navy sources (who wished to remain anonymous for confidentiality reasons), Aquitaine-class FREMM Frigate Bretagne (D655) will be taking part in the large scale exercise off Hawaii. The vessel is based in Brest, Britany.
The French frigate has already seen a lot of different environments this year: Bretagne conducted a mission to Northern Europe in January, calling in Norway. More recently, and on her way to Hawaii, she was seen calling in Kerala, India and Jakarta, Indonesia. She reached the Philippines this week.
The French Navy classifies the Aquitaine-class FREMM as a “first rank frigate” (alongside the two Horizon-type air defense destroyers designated “air defense frigates” or “FDA” locally). While the Marine Nationale does not use the term “destroyer” in French, first rank frigates are identified with the “D” designation in their pennant numbers which ranks them in the destroyer class, instead of ranking them with the “F” designation for “frigate”. So-called “second rank frigates” consist in the La Fayette-class and the Floréal-class.
In 2020, 2021, 2022, French Navy Aquitaine-class frigates have received the Hook’em award from the US 6th fleet. The award recognize the units for their proficiency in the field of anti-submarine warfare (ASW).
France’s participation to RIMPAC exercises consisted so far in vessels based in Tahiti or New Caledonia. Floréal-class light frigates or d’Entrecasteaux-class overseas offshore support and assistance vessel (known in French as bâtiments de soutien et d’assistance outre-mer or BSAOM).
Aster missile firing
Marking another “first” for the French Navy at RIMPAC, Bretagne is set to shoot at an aerial target with an Aster surface to air missile. The French navy has yet to shoot any kind of weapon at RIMPAC.
According to our information, the French initially requested to shoot at a GQM-163 Coyotte supersonic target. The firing would have taken place at Pacific Missile Range Facility Barking Sands, located on and off Kauai island. It one of the very few ranges in the world where Western navies can safely train in shooting such targets at long ranges. The other one being the Hebrides range off Scotland, where NATO exercises Formidable Shield take place. For the record, Bretagne intercepted such a supersonic target during the 2019 edition of the exercise.
However, Naval News has learned that for administrative reasons, the target (which the French Navy has to buy from the US Navy) will be a subsonic one, likely a BQM-177A. That’s not saying that the firing will be “easy”. Naval News was not able to get confirmation from more than a single source, but Bretagne could for example fire at the target using a track fed from a US Navy surface vessel or aircraft and intercept the target “at maximum range”, using one of its Aster 30 missiles. The test could also take the form of an “engage on remote” or “launch on remote” engagement:
- With “launch on remote” the vessel uses offboard data for the launch but relies on its own radar to lock onto the target during the target’s final approach;
- “Engage on remote” takes the complexity a step further because the launching ship uses data provided by remote sensors exclusively, throughout the enter engagement.
Bretagne (like her sister-ship Normandie) are ASW-focused ships, however they can deploy both Aster 15 (30+ km range) and Aster 30 (100+ km range) surface to air missiles. The first four ships in the Aquitaine-class are limited to Aster 15 for SAM.
The “complex” test would be another illustration of the “Strategic Interoperability Framework (SIF)“. Inked in December 2021. the agreement paves the way for increased cooperation between the Marine Nationale and the US Navy for the next twenty years, especially their ability to “plug and fight” side by side.
About RIMPAC 2024
According to a press release issued last week, approximately 29 nations, 40 surface ships, 3 submarines, 14 national land forces, over 150 aircraft and more than 25,000 personnel will participate in RIMPAC 2024. The exercise will take place June 26 to Aug. 2, in and around the Hawaiian Islands.
RIMPAC 2024 is the 29th exercise in the series that began in 1971. As the world’s largest international maritime exercise, RIMPAC combines force capabilities in a dynamic maritime environment to demonstrate enduring interoperability across the full spectrum of military operations.
The theme of RIMPAC 2024 is “Partners: Integrated and Prepared.” To promote a free and open Indo-Pacific, Exercise RIMPAC is the premier joint and combined maritime exercise, utilizing and preserving a world class maritime training environment. With inclusivity at its core, RIMPAC fosters multi-national cooperation and trust, leverages interoperability, and achieves respective national objectives to strengthen integrated, prepared, coalition partners.
This year’s exercise includes forces from Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, Ecuador, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Peru, the Republic of Korea, the Republic of the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tonga, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Hosted by Commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet, RIMPAC 2024 will be led by Commander, U.S. 3rd Fleet, who will serve as the Combined Task Force (CTF) commander. For the first time in RIMPAC history, a member of the Chilean Navy, Commodore Alberto Guerrero, will serve as deputy commander of the CTF. Rear Adm. Kazushi Yokota of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force will serve as vice commander. Other key leaders of the multinational force will include Commodore Kristjan Monaghan of Canada, who will command the maritime component, and Air Commodore Louise Desjardins of Australia, who will command the air component.
During RIMPAC, integrated and prepared partners train and operate together in order to strengthen our collective forces and promote a free and open Indo-Pacific. RIMPAC 2024 contributes to the increased interoperability, resiliency and agility needed by the Joint and Combined Force to deter and defeat aggression by major powers across all domains and levels of conflict.
