DCNS gets major French Navy contract for La Fayette-class frigates

TOULON, FRANCE (BNS): European shipbuilder DCNS has received a major contract from the French Navy to provide operational maintenance services for its La Fayette-class multi-mission stealth frigates.

The contract, worth over 60 million euro (USD 80 million), makes way for providing maintenance support to five La Fayette-class frigates – Aconite, Courbet, Guépratte, La Fayette and Surcouf – at DCNS's Toulon facility for five years from 2011 to 2015.

The implementation of the contract will begin with the technical overhaul of Surcouf in spring 2011, DCNS said.

The contract stipulates for DCNS to establish a construction site and an industrial organisation fully dedicated for the maintenance programme. 

Thus, around a steering team gathered and presented on the site in question, human resources (engineers, buyers, processors, mechanics, electricians, boilermakers, etc.) will be assigned to the programme for the duration of the contract, the naval defence company said.

The La Fayette-class warships, with their unique stealth design, high endurance and survivability prowess, have been designed to counter modern-day threats in hostile environments. The warships are capable of carrying heavy shipboard helicopters with powerful combat systems that could include anti-ship AM39 Exocet or Aster 15/30 missiles.

The warships have been operational in the French Navy for over a decade with the commissioning of the lead ship, La Fayette, in 1996 and the last ship, Guepratte, in 2001.

Royal Navy Frigate Continues to Support French Carrier in Gulf

HMS Cumberland has continued her operations over the Christmas and New Year period in support of the Frenchaircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle by escorting her through the Strait of Hormuz early Boxing Day morning (26 December 2010).

While most people in Britain were sleeping off the Christmas Day excess, HMS Cumberland led the French carrier group through the vital Strait of Hormuz and into the Gulf.

The British frigate had been acting in support of Charles de Gaulle in the Indian Ocean while she conducted air operations into Afghanistan over the Christmas period. Cumberland's duties with the French will continue in the Gulf.

Cumberland's Christmas tasking afforded her crew little opportunity to relax and enjoy the festivities, although, in traditional fashion, roast turkey and all the trimmings was served to the sailors by Cumberland's Captain and officers. Captain Steve Dainton, Captain of HMS Cumberland, said:

"Cumberland's tasking in support of Charles de Gaulle over Christmas has demonstrated the longstanding and close working relationship between the French Navy and us.

"The Strait of Hormuz is a vital sea lane and Cumberland has been tasked to assist in the provision of security for the French carrier. This is a task we have already provided for other high value shipping since we've been on task in the area."

Cumberland is a versatile multi-role frigate, and is as much at home providing support to the carrier as she has been providing a reassuring presence to peaceful maritime use of the Gulf since the beginning of November 2010.

She assumed responsibility as the on-watch Gulf frigate from HMS Somerset on 31 October 2010.

Since then, she has been employed conducting energy security patrols in the Gulf, ensuring the safety of critical energy supply routes for the UK and her allies. She has also been tasked with the protection of the Al Basra oil platform in Iraqi territorial waters.

Some 80 per cent of Iraq's GDP is pumped through the terminal and into waiting oil tankers which then pass through the strategically critical Strait of Hormuz.

HMS Cumberland will remain on task in the Gulf until well into the New Year. She is due to return home to Devonport in March prior to decommissioning in the summer as part of savings following the Strategic Defence and Security Review. She sailed from the UK on 30 September 2010.

France's decision to sell two warships to Russia has sparked controversy

France's decision to sell two warships to Russia has sparked controversy, with Russia's neighbors, mainly, suggesting that Paris may have forged the way for other Western countries to deal with the Kremlin in trade ranging from high-tech military equipment to oil rights.
The deal, negotiated for months, marks the first major defense sale between a NATO member state and Russia.

"I think this is a mistake," Lithuanian Defense Minister Rasa Jukneviciene told reporters as the Paris government trumpeted its success, writing "France wins" on the presidential palace Web site.
"This is a precedent, when a NATO and EU member sells offensive weaponry to a country whose democracy is not at a level that would make us feel calm."
Lithuania and fellow Baltic states Latvia and Estonia -- which were ruled by Moscow until 1991 -- have been the most vocal critics of the deal since talks began between France and Russia in 2009. Washington, at the time, also expressed reservations about the sale.

Designed to attack the shore from the sea, the French Mistral class is viewed as an ideal weapon for Russia against possible uprising by nearby countries.
The price tag for each vessel is estimated at around $380 million and the building venture will be a 50-50 project.
The boxy Mistral amphibious assault ship can carry 16 heavy or 35 light helicopters, dozens of tanks, 450 personnel and up to 70 armored vehicles, including 13 battle tanks.
Military experts have been less apprehensive about the deal.
Paris defense expert Pierre Conesa told Voice of America that the Baltic states should potentially readdress their relations with Russia.
"Their past and ours are quite different. They have been occupied by the Soviet Union, or in the case of Georgia, in conflicts with Russia. But the best way to stabilize and establish peaceful relations with Russia is probably to treat Moscow as a partner," Conesa said.
He said the context of the sale was important and indicative of NATO's improved relations with Russia. So much, in fact, that during the alliance's summit in Lisbon in November, NATO invited Russia to collaborate on a missile defense shield.
"You must pay attention to the fact that on an anti-missile defense system, the cooperation will be deeper and probably more sensitive technologically than on a Mistral system," he said.
Details of their deployment have yet to be divulged by Russian military officials but it has been publicly suggested that use of the Mistral ships will be made in the Northern and Pacific fleets.
The first Mistral-class ship is to be completed within 36 months once Russia makes an advance payment scheduled for January.

France Arms export orders worth 8.16 Billion euros

Paris - France booked 2009 arms export orders worth 8.16 billion euros ($11.31 billion), a 22 percent rise over the previous year, showing a climb out of the lows hit in the middle of the last decade, Defense Ministry spokesman Laurent Teisseire said.

In 2008, France reported orders worth 6.58 billion euros; in 2007, 5.5 billion euros.

A second year of improvement in export performance reversed the "very negative slope" hit in the middle of the last decade when foreign sales hit a low of just over 3 billion euros, he said.With the latest figures, France held its rank as the fourth-largest arms exporter with a 7.2 percent share of the world market, and better reflected the country's industrial capacity, Teisseire told a press conference in a joint presentation with the Foreign Ministry of the government's annual report to parliament on weapon exports.

Brazil emerged as France's biggest export customer last year, thanks to its purchase of four Scorpene-type diesel-electric submarines and a partnership deal estimated at 6.7 billion euros, according to industry sources.

The Brazilian sale pushed South America's share of French arms exports to 24.9 percent, just under the Middle East's 25.7 percent share.

Other leading export clients were Saudi Arabia, which bought the second tranche of the A330 multirole tanker and transport aircraft, and the United Arab Emirates, Teisseire said. The Saudi order for the tanker jet had already appeared in the 2008 report.

The government's objective is to have an equal balance of orders from national programs and export contracts, giving visibility to industry.

France has written into the 2009-14 military budget law assumptions of export sales, but the absence of foreign contracts for the Rafale fighter has meant the government has to inject 800 million euros over the next three years to maintain a minimum production rate of 11 aircraft a year at Dassault.

On the basis of deliveries in 2004-08, the United States was the world's biggest exporter with a 52.4 percent share, followed by Britain with 13.4 percent, Russia 8.4 percent, France, and Israel at 5.3 percent. The global market was worth 63.7 billion euros, the report said, based on official figures and foreign parliamentary records. South Korea was among new export actors.

In his remarks, Teisseire paid tribute to the scholarly analysis of arms export shown by the late defense specialist, Jean-Paul Hébert, whose detailed examination of figures showed a long-term appreciation of the subject.

In the September 2009 edition of Débat Stratégique, a strategic studies journal, Hébert wrote that French arms sales and deliveries had fallen by 45 percent, in 2008 prices, over the last 30 years.

In 1981-90, annual orders averaged 9.19 billion euros; in 1991-2000, 6.69 billion; and in 2001-08, 5.19 billion. Deliveries shrank as well, averaging 9.25 billion euros in 1981-90, 4.9 billion in 1991-2000 and 4.67 billion in 2001-'08, Hebert's article said.

The Middle East's share of exports fell by 70 percent over the 30 years, while sales to the rest of the world remained stable, Hébert said.