Stuttgart: The French Navy has taken delivery of the LSS Jacques Chevallier, the first of a new class of supply ships meant to replace the service’s aging fleet tankers.
The Chevallier – named for the French engineer who pioneered the nation’s naval nuclear propulsion development and served as chief of the French military procurement office Délégation Générale de l’Armement (DGA) in the late 1980s – has undergone sea trials at the Toulon naval base in southern France since March. It’s the first of four new logistics vessels that will take over for the navy’s Durance-class of tankers, which were built between 1973-1990.
The formal delivery ceremony took place July 18 at Toulon in the presence of senior French and Italian defence ministry officials as well as representatives from Naval Group, Chantiers de l’Atlantique and the international Organisation for Joint Armament Co-operation (OCCAR), which manages the program on behalf of France and Italy.
Next, the Chevallier will undergo operational evaluations by the Navy. The ship is expected to enter service in 2024, according to France’s Armed Forces Ministry.
The new ships – known in French as “bâtiments ravitailleurs de forces” (BRF) – were built with greater cargo and fuel-carrying capacity than their predecessors in the French Navy’s Durance-class of fleet tankers. They are being developed under the “flotte logistique” (FLOTLOG) program, led by the DGA and supported by the Italian Navy’s counterpart, the “Direzione degli armament navali” (NAVARM).
France took the design of the Fincantieri-developed LSS Vulcano, delivered to the Italian Navy in March 2021, and made modifications to allow for its own tankers to support the carrier battle group of the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier, the French Armed Forces Ministry said in a July 18 press release.
Development of the Chevallier began in 2019 at Chantiers de l’Atlantique’s shipyards in Saint-Nazaire, on France’s west coast. Final assembly for the second LSS, dubbed Jacques Stosskopf, will begin in early 2024, with a planned 2025 delivery date, per Naval Group. The third and fourth ships in the Chevallier class will be named Emile Bertin and Gustave Zédé, per the French defence ministry.
Chantiers de l’Atlantique is lead for the design and construction of the Jacques Chevallier-class ships, and is responsible for the integration and assembly of embedded systems. Meanwhile, Naval Group is contracted to design, develop, integrate and maintain the ships’ military systems, including the combat system, aircraft landing components and ammunition loading capabilities, the company said in a July 19 statement.
Italy’s Fincantieri manufactures the hull sections that house the refuelling system, at the company’s Castellammare di Stabia shipyard near Naples.
The French LSS class will measure 194 meters long (over 636 feet), and be capable of transporting 3.4 million gallons of fuel, with a displacement weight of 31,000 tonnes (68.3 million pounds) at full load. It will be equipped with the 40mm RAPIDFire artillery system developed by Thales and KNDS, as well as MBDA’s Simbad RC short-range air defence system.
