France Orders Third Mistral-Class Amphibious Ship
The Mistral (L9013) command and force projection ship. The newly-ordered third Mistral-class ship is expected to begin its sea trials in May 2011, and commissioned into service in 2012.
As part of the French Government’s economic recovery plan, STX France and DCNS have been awarded the contract to build the French Navy’s third Projection and Command Vessel for the French Navy.
Work on the third vessel was started last week in Saint-Nazaire by Hervé Morin, the Defence Minister and Patrick Devedjian, Minister in charge of implementing the recovery plan.
In line with the recovery plan initiated by the Government in order to face up to the challenges of the world economic crisis, the order for the third vessel called for the creation of a tailor-made industrial organizational structure in order to achieve the budgetary objective fixed by the state. It therefore not only meets the operational objectives of every new ship ordered by the government but also the specific economic objectives of the recovery plan.
Due to the extremely tight economic constraints that characterize this project, the ship will be built solely on the Saint-Nazaire site.
STX France, in charge of the overall coordination of the project for the industrial part, will build the whole of the propelled platform including the fitting out of equipment onboard. This represents 75% of the vessel value. Once trials are completed, the vessel will move to Toulon under its own power.
DCNS will manufacture and integrate the combat system, which includes communications, navigation and combat management systems. The tasks involved in its production demand high value added skill levels, in order to enable the vessel to conduct its operational missions, and represent a quarter of the overall cost of the ship.
199 metres in length, with a displacement of 21,000 tons and a speed of 19 knots, the vessels are distinguished by their large carrying capacity: 450 troops, 16 heavy-lift helicopters, 2 hovercraft, 4 LCMs (landing craft) or a third of a mechanized regiment (1,000 tons), which they are able to deploy worldwide. They are equipped with electric pod propulsion and their high level of automation enables the size of their crew to be reduced to 160. They also boast an on-board hospital for large-scale humanitarian missions. Their particularly advanced communications system, 3D surveillance radar and combat management system make them ideal platforms for commanding a naval task force.
The first two vessels, Mistral and Tonnere, built by DCNS and Chantiers de l’Atlantique, were delivered in 2006 and 2007.
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