Tourville-class frigate

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The F67 type, also known as the Tourville class, consisted of three guided-missile frigates built for the French Navy during the 1970s. They were designed as convoy escorts during the Cold War.

Design and description

File:Tourville 3.jpg

Close-up of the bow deck of Tourville; the 100 mm turret is clearly visible

File:Tourville-crotale.jpg

The Crotale missile launcher

The Tourville-class ships were designed as anti-submarine (ASW) escorts for convoys in the North Atlantic and are enlarged versions of the older Template:Ship, designed around a requirement to accommodate two Westland Lynx helicopters and Exocet anti-ship missiles.Template:Sfn They have an overall length of Template:Convert, a beam of Template:Cvt and a draught of Template:Cvt. The ships have a standard displacement of Template:Convert and Template:Convert at full load. The Tourvilles were powered by two geared steam turbines, each driving one propeller shaft using steam provided by four boilers. The turbines were rated at Template:Convert to give the ships a maximum speed of Template:Convert and a range of Template:Convert at Template:Convert. The frigate had a complement of 292 sailors including 17 officers.Template:Sfn

The primary anti-ship weapon of the Tourvilles consisted of six single box launchers for MM38 Exocet missiles, located to the rear of the bridge with three launchers on each broadside. The frigates were designed with three [[French 100 mm naval gun|Template:Convert Modèle 1968]] guns in single-gun turrets; one superfiring pair forward of the bridge and the third gun positioned atop the rear superstructure. Tourville and Duguay-Trouin were completed with this configuration, but De Grasse had the aft gun deleted in anticipation of a Crotale anti-aircraft missile system being installed at that location. They were also equipped with two Template:Cvt guns. The anti-submarine weapons of the Tourville-class ships included a Malafon anti-submarine missile launcher between the fore and aft superstructures for which they carried 13 missiles. They had two launchers for L5 torpedoes, one on each side of the ship. Each ship carried ten torpedoes. The Tourvilles were the first French ships of destroyer-size or larger designed to carry helicopters, a pair of Lynx ASW helicopters in a double hangar at the stern.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

They were equipped with a DRBV 51B search radar, a DRBC 32D fire-control radar and a DRBV 26 early-warning radar. For anti-submarine warfare, they were equipped with DUBV 23 hull-mounted sonar and DUBV 43 towed variable depth sonar. For electronic defence, the vessels mounted two Syllex chaff launchers. The SENIT 3 tactical data system coordinated sensor data.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Ships

Pennant number	Ship	Launched	Commissioned	Decommissioned	Status
D610	Template:Ship	13 May 1972	21 June 1974	16 June 2011<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>	Laid Up
D611	Template:Ship	1 June 1973	17 September 1975	13 July 1999	Discarded, in use as a breakwater
D612	Template:Ship	30 November 1974	1 October 1977	5 May 2013<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>	Laid Up

References

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