La Motte-Picquet is a F70 type anti-submarine frigate of the French Marine Nationale. She is the fourth French vessel named after the 18th Century admiral count Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte.
The
Georges Leygues class anti-submarine destroyers (Type F 70 ASM or anti-submarine frigates) are primarily designed
for anti - submarines warfare (ASW) missions and to provide escort to the French
carrier battle group and SSBNs. Vessels of the class received upgrades to their
combat systems which increased their self protection against air threats and
made them capable warships for anti-surface warfare (ASuW) as well. The F70 is
internationally labelled an "anti-submarine destroyer" (hence the "D"
in the hull numbers), though the French do not use the term and refer to the
ships as "frigates".
The
superstructures were built to optimise resistance to the blast from nuclear
explosions. The last three ships of the class had their bridges raised one deck
to overcome problems experienced by the first four in bad weather, as well as
being equipped with DSBV 61 passive linear towed array sonar and several other
upgraded systems.
The
hull and superstructure are made of welded steel and designed to have good
resilience in the blast of a nuclear explosion. Some automatic fin stabilizers
are fitted. All vessels of the class have an NBC warfare protective citadel,
and their navigation bridge is equipped with two optical periscopes.
Accommodations for female crewmembers are incorporated in all except D645. The
21-m-long by 12.20-m-wide helicopter deck has a SPHEX (Système Pousseur pour Hélicoptère Embarqué Lynx)
landing system with harpoon-type landing grid and two deck-traversing rails to
move the helicopters in and out of the spacious hangar, which is 13.5 m long,
11.4 m wide, and 4.3 m high. All vessels had their hulls reinforced during
2002–03 due to hull cracking (Similar to Cassard class). The modifications
added 120 tons of structural steel and required adding 210 tons of permanent
ballast.
D640 Georges
Leygues (Retired 2014)
D641 Dupleix
D642 Montcalm
D643 Jean
de Vienne
D644 Primauguet
D645 Lamotte-Picquet
D646 Latouché
Trevillé
Fs
La Motte-Picquet is seen here alongside in Leith
during her visit from the 1st – 5th November 2014.
