Some French cold war ships (in no particular order)
Tourville-class destroyers
Designed in the mid-sixties as dedicated oceangoing anti-submarine escorts, these three destroyers were long known as France’s most seaworthy warships; they spent almost their entire careers operating in the Atlantic. They resembled a down-scaled Suffren-type with simplified electronics, the same gunnery, sonar and ASW equipment, and two helicopters instead of a SAM system. They were designed from the start to mount the upcoming Crotale short-range SAM, but as completed, the first two – Tourville and Duguay-Trouin – had a third 100mm turret aft as a placeholder till Crotale became available.
The third ship – De Grasse – never received the third turret. All initially had Alouette III helicopters, and a rather obsolete surface-search radar forward.
When Crotale became available in 1979, all three ships were retrofitted. They also had their electronics modified, replacing the surface search set with a newer one (requiring the mast to be modified to place it as far up as possible) and received a pair of 20mm cannon just behind the bridge to deal with asymmetric threats. Apparently, trials had showed insufficient hull strength, so the hull received external stiffening along the upper deck. From 1980, all embarked two Lynx helicopters, which could fire 324mm ASW torpedoes and AS.15TT antiship missiles. The rigging between the masts is no longer visible on photographs showing the Crotale system.
At some point in the mid-1980s, satellite communication was retrofitted (a photograph labelled 1984 shows Duguay Trouin without satcom, another one labelled 1986 shows Tourville with it). They also received an upgraded towed array sonar; if it looked any different fron the original, I could not spot the difference on the photographs I have seen.
In 1990/1, the Crotale system was replaced with the improved Crotale EDIR with additional IR guidance and the capability to engage sea-skimming missiles. Externally, the launcher did not change (not that I noticed, anyway). A new deckhouse was erected immediately in front of the launch/magazine module, about whose purpose I haven’t found any info, and the Satcom array was augmented.
After 1996, Malafon was retired and removed from Tourville and De Grasse; sonar was upgraded again, and a new ASW combat system was installed (again without any external alterations visible to my untrained eye). Duguay-Trouin was retired in her entirety in 1999; the other two remained in service till 2011 and 2013, respectively. Due to their age and budget restrictions, they did not receive any significant upgrades after the turn of the century.
The torpedo is placed aft because I figured the hull opening there might be the catapult; I have not found its location in any of the sources I used. It might well be located somewhere else entirely. Additional info is welcome.
Greetings
GD
![[ img ]](https://i.imgur.com/aKyB6BW.png)
