Handover of the French-Italian fleet supplier JACQUES CHEVALLIER

Mistral Simbad-RC, Photo: MBDA

Toulon was the venue for a team event: OCCAR (Organisation Conjointe de Coopération en Matière d'Armement, European Armaments Agency), DGA (Direction Générale de l'Armement, Paris Armaments Office) and the Marine Nationale handed over the first French-Italian naval supply vessel JACQUES CHEVALLIER from one to the other. With a length of 194 metres and a displacement of 31,000 tonnes, the Bâtiment Ravitailleur de Forces is a showcase project: with its electric propulsion, it can reach 10 knots, with exhaust plume 20 knots - and behind the bridge, for the first time on a French unit, two Mistral Simbad-RC launchers are installed for short-range defence, each equipped with two anti-aircraft and sea-target FKs. The construction programme at the Chantiers de l'Atlantique in Saint Nazaire came to a bit of a standstill, as the date for the CHEVALLIER was already scheduled for 2022. This is the cost of having a floating hull section built at Fincantieri in Italy for the sake of commonality and then having to be towed around the Spanish peninsula to the French west coast. The bow section of the second unit has just been completed in Italy and is due to be delivered in 2025 under the name JACQUES STOSSKOPF. The third unit would then be ready in 2027. The construction of a fourth platform, which was decided this year, is not scheduled until 2030. The JACQUES CHEVALLIER had already supplied the French battle group around the aircraft carrier CHARLES DE GAULLE at sea during the functional tests at the end of March.