French frigate Protet

Commandant Rivière-class frigate
History
France
Name	Protet
Namesake	Auguste Léopold Protet
Builder	Arsenal de Lorient, Lorient
Laid down	September 1961
Launched	7 December 1962
Commissioned	1 May 1964
Decommissioned	1992
Identification	Pennant number: F748
Fate	Sunk as target, 2001
General characteristics
Class and type	Commandant Rivière-class frigate
Displacement	1,720 long tons (1,750 t) standard 2,190 long tons (2,230 t) full load
Length	98.0 m (321 ft 6 in) oa 103.0 m (337 ft 11 in) pp
Beam	11.5 m (37 ft 9 in)
Draught	4.3 m (14 ft 1 in)
Propulsion	2 shafts (4 × SEMT-Pielstick 12-cylinder diesel engines) 16,000 bhp (12,000 kW)
Speed	25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph)
Range	7,500 nmi (13,900 km; 8,600 mi) at 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph)
Boats & landing craft carried	2 × LCP landing craft
Complement	166
Sensors and processing systems	DRBV22A air search radar DRBC32C fire control radar DUBA3 sonar SQS17 sonar
Armament	3 × single 100 mm (4 in) guns - one gun later replaced by 4 MM38 Exocet missiles 2 × 30 mm guns 1 × 305 mm (12 in) anti-submarine mortar 2 × triple 550 mm (22 in) torpedo tubes (6 × L5 torpedoes)

Protet (F748) is a Commandant Rivière-class frigate in the French Navy.

Development and design

Main article: Commandant Rivière-class frigate

Designed to navigate overseas, the escort escorts were fully air-conditioned, resulting in appreciated comfort, which was far from being the case for other contemporary naval vessels.

A posting on a Aviso-escort was a boarding sought after by sailors because it was a guarantee of campaigning overseas and visiting the country.

Four other similar units were built at Ateliers et Chantiers de Bretagne (ACB) in Nantes for the Portuguese Navy under the class name João Belo.

All French units were decommissioned in the mid-1990s. Three ships were sold to the Uruguayan Navy.

In 1984, Commandant Rivière underwent a redesign to become an experimentation building. It will retain only a single triple platform of 550mm anti-submarine torpedo tubes and all the rest of the armament was landed, replaced by a single 40mm anti-aircraft gun and two 12.7mm machine guns.

Construction and career

Protet was laid down in September 1961 at Arsenal de Lorient, Lorient. Launched on 7 December 1962 and commissioned on 1 May 1964.

In 1991, before the Operation Desert Storm, the vessel embarked additional equipment in Djibouti (Inmarsat, infrared camera, Mistral missiles, stealth tarpaulins, etc.). Until the end of the year, the embargo control missions alternate with stopovers (Kenya, Seychelles, Pakistan, Gulf countries). The last commander, Commander de Roquefeuil, takes up his duties in Djibouti during the month of May.

In 1992, the previous year, the vessel carried out embargo control missions and several stopovers (Monbasa, Singapore, Colombo, Chittagong) before leaving Djibouti on Saturday June 13, 1992. It returned to Toulon on Monday June 22, 1992 for there start disarmament operations. Her last outing to the sea will take place on the occasion of the traditional outing of his commanders on Thursday, June 25, 1992.

In 4,020 days at sea, this vessel will have circled the Earth 44 times, or approximately 960,000 nautical miles (1,780,000 km). She was decommissioned on 29 June 1992 and sunk as target off the coast of Toulon by a combined naval air force during a Trident exercise on 24 May 2001.