French frigate Georges Leygues

Template:Template otherTemplate:Infobox ship/subboxTemplate:Infobox ship/subboxTemplate:Infobox ship/subboxTemplate:Infobox ship/subbox

Georges Leygues (D640) was the lead ship of her class of seven guided-missile frigates built for the French Marine Nationale during the 1970s. Completed in 1979, she served during the Cold War.

Design and description

The Georges Leygues-class ships were designed as anti-submarine (ASW) escorts for the fleet.Template:Sfn They had an overall length of , a beam of Template:Cvt and a draught of Template:Cvt. The ships had a standard displacement of and at full load. The Georges Leyguess' propulsion machinery used a CODOG configuration with one SEMT-Pielstick 16PA6-V280 diesel engine and a Rolls-Royce Olympus TM3B gas turbine were coupled to each of the two propeller shafts. The diesels were used for speeds under and the gas turbines for sprints up to . The diesels were rated at a total of and the turbines at a total of Template:Cvt.Template:Sfn The combination give the ships a range of at . The frigates had a complement of 216 sailors.Template:Sfn

The primary anti-ship weapon of the Georges Leyguess consisted of four single box launchers for MM38 Exocet anti-ship missiles, located aft of the funnel with two launchers on each broadside. The frigates were designed with a single Modèle 1968 dual-purpose gun in a single-gun turret forward of the superstructure. They were also equipped with two Template:Cvt guns. The ships were fitted with a octuple Crotale anti-aircraft missile launcher with 26 reloads located on the aft superstructure. The anti-submarine| (ASW) weapons of the Georges Leygues-class ships consisted of two torpedo launchers , one on each side of the ship. Each ship carried ten torpedoes. The ships were designed to carry helicopters, a pair of Westland Lynx ASW helicopters in a double hangar at the stern.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

They were completed with a DRBV 51C search radar, a DRBC 32E fire-control radar and a DRBV 26 early-warning radar. For anti-submarine warfare, they were equipped with a DUBV 23B hull-mounted sonar and DUBV 43B towed variable depth sonar. For electronic defence, the vessels mounted two Syllex chaff launchers. The SENIT 4 tactical data system coordinated sensor data.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Construction and career

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

In early 2004, after the 2004 Haitian coup d'état, Jeanne d'Arc and Georges Leygues were re-routed to assist in the French intervention there. In December the same year, the two ships intervened in Indonesia after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. In 2011, the frigate took part in the evacuation of the civilians from Tunisia. The ship was decommissioned on 21 March 2014.