French frigates like La Fayette will be upgraded

Marine Nationale modernizes three of the five owned frigate La Fayette (lightly devoid of detection), as part of Mid-Life Upgrade. The modernisation work will be carried out by Naval Group at the shipyard in Tulon.

The French fleet indicated the frigates La Fayette (F710), Courbet (F712) and Aconit (F713) as units to be subjected to the MLU from 2020. The first ship is expected to return to service in 2021. The scope of modernisation is to include IT and computer systems, on-board electronics, propulsion systems, ship equipment digitization and connections between its components. Ships will receive a new combat system which is a variant of the SENIT system used on the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle. In addition, data exchange links will be upgraded.

Iwith a stand-alone retrofit ships will be installing the Thales Kingklip hull sonar, extending the ship's capabilities to carry out submarine combat tasks. Anti-aircraft weapons will be replaced as the single Thales Crotale CN missile systems (8 missiles on the launcher and 18 in the spare) will be replaced by two MBDA SADRAL systems with Mistral missiles. This replacement is the result of unsatisfactory effectiveness of withdrawn rockets in relation to low-flying targets.

The French Defence Procurement Agency Armament General Directorate (DGA) selected the Naval Group (then DCNS) in May 2017. Works performed on indicated ships will allow their operation until the 1930s. These ships will be replaced in the future by new frigates of the FDI type (Frégate de défense et d’intervention), formerly known as the FTI type or Belh@rra.

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