French Navy's third FREMM Multi-Mission Frigate starts sea trials

The French Navy’s third FREMM multi-mission frigate, the Languedoc, has been floated out from DCNS’ Lorient shipyard to undergo sea trials off the coast of Brittany.The Languedoc is the third FREMM ordered by OCCAR 1 on behalf of the DGA (French Defence Procurement Agency) and the French Navy.

The main objective of the sea trials was to test the performance of the vessel’s propulsion and navigation system.

The FREMM Languedoc will benefit from a significant reduction in the duration of its sea trials compared to the previous FREMMs: six weeks instead of the previous eight.

DCNS has already delivered two FREMM Multi-Mission Frigates on schedule to the French Navy. By mid-2019, DCNS will have delivered six FREMM’s to the French Navy, in accordance with the Military Programming Law 2015-2019, as well as two FREMMs for the export market (The Royal Moroccan Navy and the Egyptian Navy).

The experience and lessons learned from the FREMMs already delivered enabled DCNS and its partners to proceed with the integration of the combat system’s sensors and weapons prior to the FREMM Languedoc’s first sea outing. This led to a reduction in the total time required for vessel trials – from six week to the previous eight. This optimised trial duration illustrates the transition to “series mode” or multi-mission frigates.

“The acceleration of the trialscheduling for the FREMM Languedocis a demonstration of DCNS capacity to ensure efficient serial production”, explains Anne Bianchi, Director of the FREMM Programme at DCNS.

The FREMM programme will see DCNS build ten frigates, eight of them for the French Navy. Six of these will be delivered by 2019 and two frigates equipped with strengthened anti-aircraft capacities will be delivered before 2022.

Two further units have been sold and delivered to international clients: the Royal Moroccan Navy and the Egyptian Navy.

Under the project management of DCNS, the heavily-armed FREMM frigates are equipped with the most effective weapon systems and equipment, such as the Herakles multifunctional radar, the Naval Cruise Missile, the Aster and Exocet MM 40 missiles and the MU 90 torpedoes.

Link to FREMM Frigate (Aquitaine class) technical datasheet