Naval Group Delivers First BRF Supply Ship To French Navy, mentions a Naval News source.
Jacques Chevallier
Naval Group handed over the “Jacques Chevallier” to the French Navy (Marine Nationale) during a ceremony held 18 July 2023. The vessel is the first of four new logistic support ships (LSS) known as “BRF”.
The delivery took place during a ceremony at the Toulon naval base, in the presence of General Thierry Carlier, Vice head of the DGA, the vice-admiral Xavier Baudouard, commander of the Force d’Action Navale, Laurent Castaing, managing director of Chantiers de l’Atlantique and Vincent Martinot-Lagarde, director of Naval Group services. Representatives of NAVARM (Italian counterpart of the DGA) and the Joint Organization for Cooperation in Armament Programs (OCCAr) were also present.
The construction of the first of four new replenishment tankers / supply vessels for the French navy (Marine Nationale) started in May 2020 at the Chantiers de l’Atlantique shipyard. Naval Group acts as the prime contractor for the program.
The keel-laying of the “Jacques Chevallier” took place at the Chantiers de l’Atlantique shipyard in late December 2021 with no ceremony. The forward section of the ship was built in Italy by local shipbuilder Fincantieri. The vessel was assembled in record time because by the end of February 2022, all the blocks were joined and the supply ship was fully assembled.
The first-in-class ship was launched in Saint-Nazaire on 29 April 2022. The BRF Jacques Chevallier, is named after one of the founding fathers of naval nuclear propulsion in France and was also former head of DGA from 1987 to 1989. The second ship-in-class will be delivered in 2025. The next three BRFs will be named Jacques Stosskopf, Emile Bertin and Gustave Zédé.
The Jacques Chevallier will continue its operational evaluation under the responsibility of the French Navy with a view to its admission to active service in 2024.
The FLOTLOG program is part of a Franco-Italian cooperation led by OCCAR on behalf of the French Defence Procurement Agency (DGA) and its Italian counterpart NAVARM, within the Logistic Support Ship (LSS) program.
Launch of the forward section of the second BRF by Fincanteri
On the same day, Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri launched the forward section of the second BRF, Jacques Stosskopf, for the French Navy at the Castellammare di Stabia (Naples) shipyard.
About BRF / Chevallier-class Replenishment Tanker
Chantiers de l’Atlantique and Naval Group were awarded a contract for the construction of four supply vessels in January 2019. The BRF which feature double hulls will replace the single hull supply vessels currently in service. The vessels are set to be delivered between 2023 and 2029. It is part of a Franco-Italian program led by OCCAR (Organisation Conjointe de Coopération en matière d’Armement – Organisation for Joint Armament Co-operation), on behalf of the French defense procurement agency (DGA) and its Italian counterpart NAVARM. As such, the design of the French BRF design is based on the Italian Navy LSS (Vulcano-class) designed by Fincantieri.
Safran Electronics & Defense was selected to supply the PASEO XLR extra long-range naval optronic identification & fire control system while to all four vessels of the class, while Vestdavit has won a tender from Chantiers de l’Atlantique to supply the davit systems for the BRFs. The RAPIDFire naval gun system developed by the consortium formed by Thales and Nexter has been chosen as the main artillery and CIWS for the class (two systems per ship). MBDA supplies two Simbad-RC Very Short Range Air Defense (VSHORAD) Systems per ship. GE is providing the propulsion systems (MV7000 drives) of the vessels. Naval Group supplies the Polaris combat management system as well as the asymmetric warfare suite (similar to the one developed for the FDI frigates).
Main characteristics of the BRF vessels
Gross tonnage: 28,700 GRT
Displacement at full load: 31,000 tonnes
Overall length: 194 m
Overall width: 27.60 m
Crew capacity: 200 people (including 140 crew members and capacity for 60 passengers)
Total deadweight: 14,870 tonnes
Freight volume: 13,000 m3
Total installed capacity: 24 MW
Artillery: 2x 40 mm guns
Polaris® Combat Management System
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Source: Naval News
