The Commandant Rivière class was a class of frigates built for the French Navy in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Labeled "aviso-escorteur" (fr: "sloop-escort"), they were designed to perform the role of overseas patrol in peacetime and anti-submarine escort in wartime. This vessel class is named after the French Navy officer Henri Rivière (1827–1883).
Four similar ships were built for the Portuguese Navy as the .Gardiner and Chumbley 1995, p. 319.
Design
The main gun armament of the Commandant Rivière class consisted of three of the new French guns, with a single turret located forward and two turrets aft.Blackman 1962, p. 88. These water-cooled automatic dual-purpose guns could fire a shell at an effective range of against surface targets and against aircraft at a rate of 60 rounds per minute.Friedman 1997, pp. 432–433. A quadruple anti-submarine mortar was fitted in 'B' position, aft of the forward gun and in front of the ship's superstructure, capable of firing a depth charge to or in the shore bombardment role, a projectile to .Grove 1990, p. 55. Two triple torpedo tubes were fitted for anti-submarine torpedoes, while the ship's armament was completed by two Hotchkiss HS-30 cannon. The ships had accommodation for an 80-man commando detachment with two fast landing boats, each capable of landing 25 personnel.Gardiner and Chumbley 1995, p. 118.
While the previous French frigates of the and classes were powered by steam turbines,Gardiner and Chumbley 1995, pp. 116–117. because a long-range was required for the overseas colonial role of the ships, the class was instead fitted with a two-shaft diesel powerplant, capable of propelling the ship at a speed of , although was reached during trials.Gardiner and Chumbley 1995, pp. 117–118.Prézelin and Baker 1990, p. 158.
Two ships of the class were fitted with modified power plants. Commandment Bory was powered by free-piston engines driving gas turbines, although it was refitted with a conventional diesel installation in 1974–1975. Balny was fitted with an experimental CODAG (combined diesel and gas) installation, in which a Turbomeca M38 gas turbine (a modified Atar-8 aero-engine downrated from to ) was combined with two AGO VI6 diesels for cruising.The gas turbine and the diesels could be clutched together to drive the single shaft, which was fitted with a 3.6m diameter controllable-pitch propeller. The CODAG arrangement took up less space, allowing 100 tons more fuel to be carried and giving a range of at . Balny omitted one 100 mm gun turret to accommodate the revised machinery.Prézelin and Baker 1990, p. 157.
Operational history The first ship to have been commissioned, but the second in her class, after Commandant Rivière, the prototype and lead ship of the series, was Victor Schœlcher, which entered service in October 1962, with all but one of the class following in the next 27 months. The exception was the CODAG powered Balny, which although launched in 1962 and completed in 1964, did not commission until 1970, being employed as a trials ship in the meantime.
Commandant Bourdais was used for fishery protection in the North Atlantic from 1963 to 1972,Blackman 1971, p. 115. while several of the ships of the class were used as training ships, including Victor Schœlcher (1961–1973) and Commandant Bourdais. In the 1970s, all except Balny had one 100 mm turret replaced by four MM 38 Exocet anti-ship missile launchers, while several of the ships had their 30 mm cannon replaced by Bofors guns.
In 1984–1985, Commandant Rivière was converted to a sonar-trials ship. The ship's armament was replaced by a single 40 mm Bofors gun and two machine guns, while the ship's stern was rebuilt to accommodate a hoist for a variable depth sonar, which was used to test various active and passive towed array sonars.Prézelin and Baker 1990, p. 167.
All French units were decommissioned in the early 1990s, save for three frigates that were sold to the Uruguayan Navy.
Ships
All French ships were built by Arsenal de Lorient
Pennant Name Namesake Laid downGardiner and Chumbley 1995, p. 117. Launched Commissioned FateF 733 Henri Rivière April 1957 11 October 1958 4 December 1962 Trials ship 1986 - decommissioned late 1990sF 725 Victor Schœlcher October 1957 11 October 1958 15 October 1962 Sold to Uruguay 1988 as General ArtigasBaker 1998, p. 1142.Decommissioned 27 April 2005. F 726 Victor Bory May 1958 11 October 1958 5 March 1964 Decommissioned 1 September 1996Baker 1998, p. 223. F 727 Léopold Victor Charner November 1958 12 March 1960 14 December 1962 Sold to Uruguay 1991 as MontevideoF 740 Adrien Bourdais April 1959 15 April 1961 10 March 1963 Sold to Uruguay 1990 as Uruguay F 728 Ernest Doudart de Lagrée March 1960 15 April 1961 1 May 1963 Decommissioned 1991 F 729 Adrien-Paul Balny d'Avricourt March 1960 17 March 1962 1 February 1970 Decommissioned 1994 F 748 Auguste Léopold Protet September 1961 7 December 1962 1 May 1964 Decommissioned 1992 F 749 Paul Henry September 1962 14 December 1963 1 January 1965 Decommissioned 1994
See also List of Escorteurs of the French Navy List of frigate classes by country
Equivalent frigates of the same era
Notes
References