Commandant Rivière-class frigate


The Commandant Rivière class was a class of frigates built for the French Navy in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Labeled "aviso-escorteur", they were designed to perform the role of overseas patrol in peacetime and anti-submarine escort in wartime.
This vessel class is named after the French Navy officer Henri Rivière .
Four similar ships were built for the Portuguese Navy as the.

Design

The main gun armament of the Commandant Rivière class consisted of three of the new French guns, with a single turret located forward and two turrets aft. These water-cooled automatic dual-purpose guns could fire a shell at an effective range of against surface targets and against aircraft at a rate of 60 rounds per minute. A quadruple 305 mm anti-submarine mortar was fitted in 'B' position, aft of the forward gun and in front of the ship's superstructure, capable of firing a depth charge to or in the shore bombardment role, a projectile to. Two triple torpedo tubes were fitted for anti-submarine torpedoes, while the ship's armament was completed by two 30 mm Hotchkiss HS-30 cannon. The ships had accommodation for an 80-man commando detachment with two fast landing boats, each capable of landing 25 men.
While the previous French frigates of the and classes were powered by steam turbines, because a long-range was required for the overseas colonial role of the ships, the class was instead fitted with a two-shaft diesel powerplant, capable of propelling the ship at a speed of, although was reached during trials.
Two ships of the class were fitted with modified power plants. Commandment Bory was powered by Free-piston engines driving gas turbines, although it was refitted with a conventional diesel installation in 1974–1975, while Balney was fitted with an experimental CODAG installation, with a and two diesel engines driving a single shaft. The CODAG arrangement took up less space, allowing 100 tons more fuel to be carried and giving a range of at. Balny omitted one 100 mm gun turret to accommodate the revised machinery.

Operational history

The first of the class, Victor Schoelcher entered service in October 1962, with all but one of the class following in the next 27 months. The exception was the CODAG powered Balny, which although launched in 1962 and completed in 1964, did not commission until 1970, being employed as a trials ship in the meantime.
Commandant Bourdais was used for fishery protection in the North Atlantic from 1963 to 1972, while several of the ships of the class were used as training ships, including Victor Schoelcher and Commandant Bourdais. In the 1970s, all except Balny had one 100 mm turret replaced by four MM 38 Exocet anti-ship missile launchers, while several of the ships had their 30 mm cannon replaced by Bofors 40 mm guns.
In 1984–1985, Commandant Rivière was converted to a sonar-trials ship. The ship's armament was replaced by a single 40 mm Bofors gun and two 12.7 mm machine guns, while the ship's stern was rebuilt to accommodate a hoist for a variable depth sonar, which was used to test various active and passive towed array sonars.
All French units were decommissioned in the early-1990s, save for three frigates that were sold to the Uruguayan Navy.

Ships

All French ships were built by Arsenal de Lorient
PennantNameNamesakeLaid DownLaunchedCommissionedFate
F 733Commandant RivièreHenri RivièreApril 195711 October 19584 December 1962Trials ship 1986 - decommissioned late 1990s
F725Victor SchoelcherVictor SchoelcherOctober 195711 October 195815 October 1962Sold to Uruguay 1988 as General Artigas
Decommissioned 27 April 2005.
F726Commandant BoryVictor BoryMay 195811 October 19585 March 1964Decommissioned 1 September 1996
F727Amiral CharnerLéopold Victor CharnerNovember 195812 March 196014 December 1962Sold to Uruguay 1991 as Montevideo
F740Commandant BourdaisAdrien BourdaisApril 195915 April 196110 March 1963Sold to Uruguay 1990 as Uruguay
F 728Doudart de LagréeErnest Doudart de LagréeMarch 196015 April 19611 May 1963Decommissioned 1991
F 729BalnyAdrien-Paul Balny d'AvricourtMarch 196017 March 19621 February 1970Decommissioned 1994
F 748ProtetAuguste Léopold ProtetSeptember 19617 December 19621 May 1964Decommissioned 1992
F 749Enseigne de Vaisseau HenryPaul HenrySeptember 196214 December 19631 January 1965Decommissioned 1994