Article Posted on : - Jan 03, 2011

FREMM Aquitaine which was officially unveiled in May 2010. A DCNS photo

LORIENT, FRANCE (BNS): French ship builder DCNS has launched the construction of French Navy’s third FREMM frigate ‘Provence’.

The company cut the first metal for the multi-mission frigate at its Lorient facility on December 15, 2010 in the presence of French Navy Chief Admiral Pierre-Francois Forissier.

With this launch, the Lorient facility is now home to four such ships under construction there – FREMMs Normandy, Aquitaine and Provence for the French Navy and one FREMM for the Moroccan Navy.

The FREMM family of frigates with technically advanced features is being designed to counter all threats emanating from air, sea or land. Each vessel will be equipped with naval cruise missiles and MU90 torpedoes with a range of several tens of nautical miles. The sensor suite of the frigate is designed around the Herakles multifunction radar with a range of more than 250 kilometres.

Led by France in partnership with Italy, the FREMM programme is Europe’s largest naval programme. While France has signed deals with DCNS to acquire a total of 11 FREMM frigates, Italy on its part, is planning to get 10 such vessels.

France, in May 2010, had officially unveiled FREMM Aquitaine.