French frigate Georges Leygues docks in HCMC
Tuesday, June 18, 2013, 16:30 GMT+7
The French frigate Georges Leygues has arrived in Ho Chi Minh City after visiting Singapore as part of its combat training program, Jeanne d'Arc 2013.
The French destroyer, along with its command warship, the Tonnerre, will be in Vietnam until June 21.
There will be a friendly cocktail party held on board the anti-submarine escort vessel, captained by Lieutenant Colonel Romuald Bomont, with the participation of French Ambassador to Vietnam Herve Bolot, civil and military officials from many countries based in HCMC, the crew members and local soldiers.
The community of French nationals in HCMC and a delegation from Brest City will also be present at the event.
The Tonnerre, headed by Colonel Jean-François Querat, will stay at the port in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau nearby instead of visiting HCMC because it is too big to be accommodated by the city’s port.
Tonnerre is one of the most modern naval ships of the French Navy and is considered a leading European landing ship. The ship, measured 200m long and 32m wide, has a displacement of 21,300 tons. It can carry 16 heavy helicopters, 4 high-speed landing craft, tanks and 70 armored vehicles.
Georges Leygues, an anti-submarine escort vessel measured 140m and 15m in length and width, has a displacement of 4,500 tons. It is powered with two gas turbine engines and two diesel engines, and is equipped with modern weapons including L5 torpedoes, Crotale missiles and 100 mm anti-aircraft guns, and Exocet mm38 anti-surface missiles.
The Jeanne d'Arc 2013 combat training program, begun in March, is a 16-month voyage through the Mediterranean Sea, Atlantic and Indian Oceans, and the East Sea of Vietnam with 123 cadets from the French naval cadet training school, GAEOM. The sailors are from many different nations, including Togo, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Brazil, on board.
One Vietnamese cadet has been approved to join the training program within the framework of the France Year in Vietnam 2013, which was held on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
Before visiting Singapore, the two ships had arrived in India on May 31.
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Georges Leygues, the lead ship of the F70 type anti-submarine frigate of the French Marine Nationale, is the second French vessel named after the 19–20th century politician and Navy Minister, Georges Leygues. Built by the Shipbuliding Directorate, it was first commissioned in 1979 and served for nearly 20 years within the Mediterranean Fleet based in Toulon. At the beginning of the 1980s, it regularly patroled the North of the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Lebanon as well as the Persian Gulf where it took part in all teh array of the missions devolved to the French Navy. It is a multi-role ship due to its Exocet and Crotale missile armaments, making them especially suitable for the defense of strategic positions, show of force operations, or as high seas escorts. |
