Georges Leygues (D640)

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the Georges Leygues
Career French Navy Ensign
General Characteristics
Displacement: 3550 t tonnes, 4500 tonnes fully loaded
Length: 139 m
Width: 14 m
Beam:
Draught: 5.80 m
Tirant d'air: 39.36 m
Propulsion: CODOG (COmbined Diesel Or Gaz): 2 Pielstick PA 6 V280 STD diesels

Diesel power: 5200 HP (3824 kW).
TAG Motorisation : 2 Rolls Royce Olympus TM3B gas turbines, 26000 HP (19120 kW).
2 propeller with 4 orientables fins each
Total power: 52000 HP (38240 kW).
Speed: 30 knots (56 km/h) on TAG, 21 knots (39 km/h) on diesel
Range: On TAG : 1000 nautical miles (1900 km) at 30 knots (56 km/h)

on diesel : 10000 nautical miles (1900 km) at 15 knots (28 km/h)
Complement: 20 officers

120 non-commissioned officers
95 men
Armament: Anti-air:
  • 1 Crotale EDIR system - 8 missiles on launcher + 18 stored
  • 2 Simbad systems - 2 x 2 Mistral missiles
  • 1 CADAM 100 mm main gun
  • 2 x 20 mm guns
  • 4 x 12.7mm machine guns

Anti-surface:

Anti-submarine:

  • 10 L5 Mod4 torpedoes
  • 2 L5 torpedo launchers
  • 12 MK46 torpedoes for the Lynx WG13 helicopter
Electronic Warfare Detection:
  • 1 Air/surface sentry radar DRBV51C
  • 1 Air sentry radar DRBV 26
  • 1 fire control radar DRBC 32E
  • 2 navigation radar KH 1007
  • 1 hull sonar DUBV 23
  • 1 tugged sonar DUBV 43C

Electronic Warfare:

  • 2 radar intereceptors ARBR 16
  • 2 Syllex chaff launchers

Tactical information:

  • SENIT 4
  • SEAO/OPSMER
Planes: 2 Lynx WG13 Mk4 helicopters, with each:
  • 1 DUAV4 sonar
  • Rheseda system for transmission of acoustic data
  • 12 MK46 torpedoes

The Georges Leygues (D640) is a F70 type anti-submarine frigate of the French Marine Nationale. She is the second French vessel named after the XIX-XXth Century politician and minister of the Navy Georges Leygues.

She is the tender for the Jeanne d'Arc.

The Georges Leygues, lead ship of her class, has a long history. In 1981, the Georges Leygues and the fleet escort Guépratte, cruising in front of an allied fleet during training sessions, detected a Soviet submarine, which they chased during 19 hours. A rare instance of submarine warfare occurred, the Soviet submarine trying running at 28 knots and diving under the sonar of the Georges Leygues to try and avoid detection, before she was forced to surface, being formally identified as a Victor class submarine by the on-board Lynx WG13.

The same year, she intervened when the Iranian ship Tabarzin was capture by a commando hostile to the new regime, and routed to France. The commando reached France and required political refugee status, while the ship was returned to Iran.

From 1987, France and Iran having broken diplomatic relationships, and the Georges Leygues escorted commercial ships in the Persian Gulf.

In 1992, the Georges Leygues took part in Operation Restore Hope in Somalia.

In 1999, she was partially transformed to accommodate student officers, and started tending the Jeanne d'Arc in the context of the training journeys of the French Naval Academy. The same year, catastrophic flooding occurred in Mozambic and the two ships were re-routed to deliver humanitarian aid.

In 2004, the study journey was perturbed by the riots in Haiti which demanded the departure of President Aristid. The Jeanne d'Arc and the Georges Leygues were re-routed to assist French intervention there.

The same year, the two ships intervened in Indonesai after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake.

There are seven ships in the F70 class :

Note: The French navy doesn't use the term "destroyer" for its ships; hence some large ships, referred to as "frigates", are registered as destroyers.

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