The French Navy’s first upgraded La Fayette-class frigate, “Courbet”, was handed over to the French defense procurement agency (DGA) on 13 September 2021 following sea trials. Meanwhile, upgrade work on a second frigate, first-in-class ship La Fayette, started on 4 October 2021.
French shipbuilder Socarenam launched the first ship in a new class of Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPV) for the French Navy. The “Auguste Benebig” was launched at the Socarenam shipyard in Saint Malo (Brittany) on 15 October 2021 as part of the POM (Patrouilleur d’Outre-Mer) program.
UFAST successfully launched the first patrol boat (known as VFM) meant for the Fusiliers Marin (Navy Riflemen) force. This is an important milestone for the 12 VFMs that will equip the French Navy in the coming months.
On 5 October 2021, the French Defence Procurement Agency (DGA) awarded Naval Group the contract for the preliminary and detailed design of the Ocean Patrol Vessel program.
The French Navy and French Army are currently conducting a joint, large scale, amphibious exercise named Cormoran 21. The goal is to train both services in a high intensity combat scenario representative of what the French Military may face tomorrow.
The French Navy signals intelligence (SIGINT) ship Dupuy de Lôme (A759) conducted a rare transis through the Taiwan Strait. This information was provided by French minister of the armed forces, Florency Parly, during a hearing at the French Senate.
The flagship of the French Navy (Marine Nationale), aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, went back to sea in late September following a three-month long maintenance period.
The A18D Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) was recently evaluated by the French Directorate General of Armaments (DGA), the French Navy and the Naval Hydrographic and Oceanographic Service (Shom) as part of the Future Hydrographic and Oceanographic Capacity (CHOF) programme.
Leonardo will provide logistics support and maintenance services for the OTO 76/62 SR weapon systems on-board the French Navy’s Horizon, FREMM (Frigate Europee Multi Mission) and FDI (Fregates de Defense et d’Intervention)-class frigates.
On July 21, 2021, Naval News visited Socarenam Shipyard in Saint Malo (Brittany, France) to see the progress being made on the future French Navy OPV program known as “POM” (Patrouilleur d’Outre-Mer).
