Duquesne (D 603)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Career (France)

Namesake:	Abraham Duquesne
Builder:	Lorient arsenal
Laid down:	February 1965
Commissioned:	1st April 1970
Out of service:	2008
Homeport:	Toulon
Fate:	In active service
General characteristics
Class and type:	Suffren class frigate
Displacement:	5335 tonnes 6780 full load
Length:	158 m
Beam:	15,50 m
Draught:	7,25 m
Propulsion:	4 steam boilers and 4 turbines for 2 propellers; 72500 hp 3440 kW, 2 turbo-alternators and 3 diesel-alternators
Speed:	34 knots
Complement:	23 officers 337 petty officers and sailors
Sensors and processing systems:	DRBI23 tridimentional sentry radar DRBV15 surface or low-altitude sentry radar DRBC33 multi-system targeting radar DRBN34 DRBR51
Electronic warfare and decoys:	2 "Sagaie" decoy launchers SLQ-25 Nixie ARBR33 jammer ARBR17 detector
Armament:	1 twin launcher of surface-air Masurca missiles (DRBR51-guided) (48 missiles) 4 launchers of MM38 Exocet missiles (4 missiles) 1 launcher of Malafon anti-submarine rocket torpedoes 4 launchers of L5 anti-submarine torpedoes (10 torpedoes) 2 100 mm turrets ("Messine" and "Palerme") 4 x 20 mm cannons 4 x 12,7 mm machine guns

The Duquesne anti-air frigate is a large vessel of the French Navy, designed to protect a fleet against air threats, surface ships, submarines, and, to a lesser extent, provide fire power against land objectives. She is the sister-ship of the Suffren. She is the eighth French vessel named after the 17th century admiral Abraham Duquesne. Her weapon systems bear names of battles to which Duquesne took part: Messine (turret n°1), Palerme (turret n°2), Alicuri (Mafalon launcher), Agosta (Masurca launcher) and Stromboli (MM38 launcher).

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.