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French Navy gets latest OPV

21st June 2019 - 09:30 GMT | by Shephard News Team

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The French Navy’s final Patrouilleurs Antilles-Guyane (PAG) programme offshore patrol vessel has been handed over at a ceremony in Saint-Malo, Brittany, MAURIC announced on 19 June.

The vessel, la Combattante, will be dedicated to surveillance, protection and intervention operations in the Caribbean region.

Since being launched in November 2019 the vessel has undergone testing, and will now join sister ship La Résolue, maintaining and protecting the sovereign interests of France in the maritime domain, particularly monitoring illegal trafficking, the protection of people and goods, and the fight against pollution.

The offshore patrol vessel has steel hull and aluminium superstructure, measuring 60.8m in length, with a low draft of 3.2m and a displacement of about 700 tons. Able to reach a speed of 21kts with advanced seakeeping, the vessel has a range of 3200nm at 12kts with hybrid electric propulsion. Some improvements of layout have been made on this last unit but the technical characteristics remain the same for the entire PAG range.