Although commissioned in 1991 and 1990, these long-serving ships protected the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier for many years while the Latouche-Tréville has also long protected the French Navy’s SSBNs based in Brest, where it continues to provide high-level ASW cover alongside the force’s new FREMMs. The roles assigned to the Jean Bart and the Latouche-Tréville demanded, moreover, thorough maintenance and regular upgrades. A few months ago, when the Jean Bart visited Piraeus near Athens, Hellenic Navy sailors on a guided tour were, according to a French officer who accompanied them, seriously impressed by the ship’s excellent condition and surprised to hear that it was scheduled to be decommissioned later in the year. The Jean Bart’s sensor suite, which includes a Smart-S radar installed in 2012 and a DRBV-26C radar, was modernised less than ten years ago. The ship thus remains an excellent platform for airspace surveillance and control. While the single Mk13 launcher armed with SM-1 MR missiles makes the weapons system dated, it nevertheless remains useful. Also, need we add, this weapon is still in service with several forces including aboard the Spanish Navy’s Santa Maria class frigates and eight Turkish Gabya-class/USN type FFG7 vessels making up half of Ankara's frigate fleet (the other half being Meko 200s). Aside from the SM-1s, the Jean Bart’s weapons suite offers good protection thanks to two Sadral six-cell launchers (and a magazine holding 39 Mistral short-range AAW missiles), a powerful EW suite, two EW jammers, two Sagaie decoy launchers, two Dagaie decoy launchers armed with Lacroix rockets and mortar shells to engage all types of in-coming missiles. Additional resources include eight Exocet MM40 missiles, a 100-mm gun turret, machine guns, two torpedo launch tubes (and ten L5 torpedoes) and a helicopter flight deck. The Jean Bart is also equipped with a DUBV-24C hull-mounted sonar.
Meanwhile, the Latouche-Tréville is currently undergoing life extension maintenance to extend its useful life beyond 2022. It too has benefitted from regular upgrades, particularly of its ASW systems. In 2015, for example, the ship was equipped with a new signal processing system to increase the sensitivity of its DUBV-24C hull-mounted sonar and its DUBV-43 variable-depth towed sonar. This ASW vessel’s self-defence system features a Crotale AAW system (which like Jean Bart’s SM-1 MR missiles are approaching the end of their useful life) and two locally reloadable Simbad systems, each armed with two ready-to-fire Mistral anti-air missiles. The remainder of the weapons suite comprises eight Exocet MM40 missiles, a 100-mm gun turret, machine guns, two launch tubes firing the feared MU90 torpedo and a flight deck accommodating one or two helicopters. The Latouche-Tréville is also equipped with a DRBV-15 radar, an EW suite, two EW jammers, two Dagaie decoy launchers and four Replica decoy launchers.
While the AAW frigate Jean Bart outclasses the other second-hand ships on offer in the AAW role, the Latouche-Tréville’s ASW capabilities similarly outclass the competition, with the possible exception of the British T23s which were also designed specifically as sub hunters. As a result, the Jean Bart and Latouche-Tréville genuinely offer several years’ continuing service, especially since, if transferred to Greece, they will undergo extensive life-extending maintenance.