The ''Georges Leygues'' class (Type C70 AS or Type F70 AS) consisted of seven guided-missile destroyers built for the

French Navy The French Navy (, , ), informally (, ), is the Navy, maritime arm of the French Armed Forces and one of the four military service branches of History of France, France. It is among the largest and most powerful List of navies, naval forces i ...

during the Cold War. They were multi-role ships due to their Exocet and Crotale missile armament, making them especially suitable for the defence of strategic positions, show of force operations, or as high seas escorts. The design was initially officially known as a "

corvette A corvette is a small warship. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper (or " rated") warship. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the sloo ...

" with the designation C70, but were internationally labelled an "anti-submarine

destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, maneuverable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy, or carrier battle group and defend them against a wide range of general threats. They were conceived i ...

" (hence the "D" in the hull numbers). Subsequently, the French referred to the ships as "frigates" with the designation F70.

Design and description

The ''Georges Leygues''-class ships were designed as anti-submarine (ASW) escorts for the fleet. They had an overall length of , a beam of and a draught of . The ships had a standard displacement of and at full load. The ''Georges Leygues''s' propulsion machinery used a CODOG configuration with one SEMT-Pielstick 16PA6-V280

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after the German engineer Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which Combustion, ignition of diesel fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to Mechanics, mechanical Compr ...

and a Rolls-Royce Olympus TM3B

gas turbine A gas turbine or gas turbine engine is a type of Internal combustion engine#Continuous combustion, continuous flow internal combustion engine. The main parts common to all gas turbine engines form the power-producing part (known as the gas gene ...

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 . The combination give the ships a range of at . The frigates had a complement of 216 sailors. The primary anti-ship weapon of the ''Georges Leygues''s 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 A dual-purpose gun is a naval artillery mounting designed to engage both surface and air targets. Description Second World War-era capital ships had four classes of artillery: the heavy main battery, intended to engage opposing battleships and ...

in a single-

gun turret A gun turret (or simply turret) is a mounting platform from which weapons can be fired that affords protection, visibility and ability to turn and aim. A modern gun turret is generally a rotatable weapon mount that houses the crew or mechanis ...

forward of the

superstructure A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships. Aboard ships and large boats On water craft, the superstruct ...

. They were also equipped with two 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 The Westland Lynx is a British multi-purpose twin-engined military helicopter designed and built by Westland Helicopters at its factory in Yeovil. Originally intended as a utility craft for both civil and naval usage, military interest led to t ...

ASW helicopters in a double

hangar A hangar is a building or structure designed to hold aircraft or spacecraft. Hangars are built of metal, wood, or concrete. The word ''hangar'' comes from Middle French ''hanghart'' ("enclosure near a house"), of Germanic origin, from Frankish ...

at the stern. They were completed with a DRBV 51C search radar, a DRBC 32E

fire-control radar A fire-control radar (FCR) is a radar that is designed specifically to provide information (mainly target azimuth, elevation, range and range rate) to a fire-control system in order to direct weapons such that they hit a target. They are someti ...

and a DRBV 26

early-warning radar An early-warning radar is any radar system used primarily for the long-range detection of its targets, i.e., allowing defences to be alerted as ''early'' as possible before the intruder reaches its target, giving the air defences the maximum tim ...

. For anti-submarine warfare, they were equipped with a DUBV 23B hull-mounted

sonar Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigate, measure distances ( ranging), communicate with or detect objects o ...

and DUBV 43B towed

variable depth sonar Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigate, measure distances ( ranging), communicate with or detect objects o ...

. For electronic defence, the vessels mounted two Syllex

chaff Chaff (; ) is dry, scale-like plant material such as the protective seed casings of cereal grains, the scale-like parts of flowers, or finely chopped straw. Chaff cannot be digested by humans, but it may be fed to livestock, ploughed into soil ...

launchers. The SENIT 4 tactical data system coordinated sensor data. The

s 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

and several other upgraded systems.

Ships in class

References

Bibliography

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External links

ASM type F70 – ''Marine nationale'' official site
{{French Navy Vehicle Frigate classes Ship classes of the French Navy