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FS L'Adroit (P725)

2012 MODERN NAVY

History

L'Adroit is an offshore/deep water patrol vessel currently chartered to the French Defense Procurement Agency (DGA) for the French Marine Corps. The ship is part of a four-person Gowind class surface frigate with a versatile design. The boats can be equipped with different weapon configurations and fully support light and medium helicopters and UAVs of fixed-wing and rotary-wing designs. Due to her flexible design, L'Adroit can be called upon to perform a variety of mission roles, including submarine warfare, anti-ship, special forces operations, amphibious assault support, counter-piracy and search and rescue. The vessel is fully modern and equipped with the latest detection, operational and safety communications equipment.

Its external design also ensures the smallest possible radar signal. L'Adroit was first delivered to the French Navy in October 2011.

L'Adroit started out as a private DCNS venture to build a corvette that could potentially be used by the French Navy. The vessel displaces 1,450 tons when fully loaded and has a crew of up to 30 people. Additionally, up to 29 combat-ready Marines or Special Forces can be supported internally.

The craft has a barrel length of 285.4 feet, a beam of 36 feet, and a draft of 10.8 feet. Power is provided by 2 Anglo-Belgium (ABC) V12 diesel engines in a CODAD (Combined Diesel and Diesel) arrangement. Water jets are also installed for precise maneuvering in low power and shallow water. The CODAD arrangement uses twin diesel engines to drive a single axle. The engine is channeled into separate clutches and then combined in the gearbox before reaching the propshaft.

This allows the use of one or two engines to propel/drive the boat, allowing full power/speed or more economical cruising with a single engine. The water jets also support high-speed travel.

The L'Adroit has a top straight-line speed of 21 knots and a range of 9,200 miles (8,000 nautical miles) at 12 knots.

L'Adroit Fully equipped below deck lounge area with sanitary and sleeper. A full-service medical center provides crew health services. The cabin is located below and aft of the fuselage superstructure and forward of the aft flight deck. A hangar under the superstructure can store small rotorcraft. Special forces facilities are located under the flight deck at the rear of the fuselage.

L'Adroit has enough resources to stay at sea for up to 30 days.

L'Adroit has a sleek design with minimal deck obstructions. There is a centralized superstructure with a nearly 360-degree bridge covered with various sensor and communications arrays. Most notably there is no smoke funnel of any kind, and the diesel engine exits through a flush duct behind the mast and bridge. Hull clearances are etched into the sides of the hull (L'Adroit is able to launch and retrieve two rigid hull inflatable boats of 30 feet, the latter functioning via a stern-mounted ramp assembly).

The foredeck can be left unobstructed (without weapons) or carry various weapon mounts as needed. Behind the superstructure is a flight deck capable of receiving and launching manned helicopters or drones. The Gowind class was designed from the beginning to support UAV/UAS functionality.

This makes the French Navy at the time of writing (2013) the only European force capable of supporting vertically-launched drones.

Gowind class surface ships can be armed with 16 x Mica RF or Aster 15 series air missiles. To counter surface threats, it can also support 8 x Exocet, RGM-84 Harpoon or RBS-15 Mk 3 series anti-ship missiles. 4 torpedo launchers are identified along the hull. The deck design can also support 20mm, 30mm or 35mm rapid-fire close-range automatic weapon systems. For extreme close range defense, L'Adroit can display up to eight heavy 12.7mm machine guns.

The L-Adroit itself is armed with only 1 x 20mm cannon and 2 x 12.7mm machine guns. The combat system is POLARIS Management Suite.

Sensor and processing systems include multiple search radars (air and ground), a multi-sensor electro-optical suite, a Sagem SIGMA 40D series inertial measurement unit, and LinkSrechts Helicopter's vision-landing aerial system. Electronic defense is provided through Thales Altesse & Vigile LW Electronic Warfare Support (EWS) and Communications Intelligence (COMINT) systems and Lacroix Defense & Security Sylena decoy systems.

To date, L'Adroit has been active on the coasts of the Indian Ocean and Asia, supporting anti-terrorism/anti-piracy, anti-drug and maritime policing operations. During this period, the vessel has been successfully used since 2012 to evaluate the unmanned helicopter Schiebel Camcopter S-100.

The aim of the ongoing program is to fully integrate French naval vessels with unmanned aerial systems to enable seamless communication between unmanned aircraft and surface ships.