The Forbin is a large anti-air destroyer of the French Navy

French Navy

The French Navy, officially the Marine nationale and often called La Royale is the maritime arm of the French military. It includes a full range of fighting vessels, from patrol boats to a nuclear powered aircraft carrier and 10 nuclear-powered submarines, four of which are capable of launching...

, lead ship of the Horizon class

Horizon class frigate

The Horizon Common New Generation Frigate is a multi-national collaboration to produce a new generation of anti-air warfare frigates. Originally an alliance of Britain, France and Italy, the project is now a French/Italian effort following the withdrawal of Britain due to differing requirements...

. Her first task is protecting aircraft carriers, capital ships or civilian ships from supersonic missile attacks; her complement of medium-range anti-air missiles allows her to support the defences of another ship under attack and avoid their saturation. She is also capable of monitoring and controlling operations carried out from the sea by friendly aircraft. Forbin is the sixth vessel of the French Navy named after the 17th century admiral Claude Forbin-Gardanne.

Building and fitting out

Construction of Forbin began in Lorient

Lorient

Lorient, or L'Orient, is a commune and a seaport in the Morbihan department in Brittany in north-western France.-History:At the beginning of the 17th century, merchants who were trading with India had established warehouses in Port-Louis...

 on 8 April 2002. The hull was built in 14 sections by a variety of subcontractors of DCN, including several companies from Saint-Nazaire. Each section is 7 metre high, and 16 to 20 metre long. Forbin was laid on 16 January 2004; the hull sections were transferred from Saint-Nazaire to Lorient on a barge tugged by Alcyon and assembled there from February 2004 to January 2005, finishing with the bow. The engines were delivered by FiatAvio in September.

Forbin was launched on 10 March 2005, after part of the Scorff river was dragged to make depth enough for her draught. She was tugged out of her building dock by four tugboats at 16h15, taking advantage of the tide. On 28 October, Forbin entered dry dock and underwater equipment were installed, notably the sonar, propellers and rudders.

Trials were held throughout 2006. Engine test started on 10 May, and she sailed for trials at sea on 29 June. Tuning of the combat management systems were particularly problematic, setting the completion of the ship off-schedule enough for her commissioning to be delayed by several months. In late January 2007, Forbin underwent new extensive trials at sea, successfully testing her combat systems in exercises against Dassault-Breguet Super Étendard and Atlantique 2 aircraft. The PAAMS

PAAMS

The Principal Anti Air Missile System is a joint French/Italian/British programme for a naval anti-aircraft weapon. The prime contractor is EUROPAAMS, a joint venture between Eurosam and MBDA subsidiary UKAMS . MBDA also owns 66% of Eurosam, in effect giving it a 77% share of the project...

 was tested in late May at the Centre d'Essais des Landes

Centre d'Essais des Landes

The Centre d'Essais des Landes is a launch site for the test of military rockets and for launching sounding rockets in France. The Centre d'Essais des Landes is situated between Biscarrosse and the Atlantic Ocean at...

. From 12 to 17, Forbin sailed to Toulon

Toulon

Toulon is a town in southern France and a large military harbor on the Mediterranean coast, with a major French naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region, Toulon is the capital of the Var department in the former province of Provence....

, her new home port, where her combat, detection and weapon systems were further finetuned. Forbin fired an Aster 30 at the test range of the DGA on 25 November.

First cruise

Forbin left Toulon on the 3rd of March 2009 for her first long cruise, visiting Morocco

Morocco

Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...

, the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. She carried a Panther from squadron 36F of the Aviation navale

Aviation Navale

French Naval Aviation of the French Navy includes 206 aircraft and 6,800 men, both civilians and military personnel. They operate from six airbases, five of them in Metropolitan France and one overseas....

 to validate her air installations. Forbin sailed to Casablanca

Casablanca

Casablanca is a city in western Morocco, located on the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the Grand Casablanca region.Casablanca is Morocco's largest city as well as its chief port. It is also the biggest city in the Maghreb. The 2004 census recorded a population of 2,949,805 in the prefecture...

, and then to Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...

. She left Brazil on 30 March, bound for Martinique

Martinique

Martinique is an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea, with a land area of . Like Guadeloupe, it is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. To the northwest lies Dominica, to the south St Lucia, and to the southeast Barbados...

, where she arrived on 21 April. and sailed on to Norfolk

Norfolk

Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...

 and New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, arriving on 24 April. During the transit, she carried out excercices with USS Forrest Sherman

USS Forrest Sherman (DDG-98)

USS Forrest Sherman is an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer in the United States Navy. She is named for Admiral Forrest Sherman, and is the second US Navy ship to bear the name....

. A visit to Halifax was cancelled. Forbin was back to France in May, where she took part in the naval parade of 8 May off Sainte-Maxime

Sainte-Maxime

Sainte-Maxime is a commune and city in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. I.e. on the French Riviera in southeastern France from Nice and from Marseille.-Village:...

. On 25 May, she was at Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi , literally Father of Gazelle, is the capital and the second largest city of the United Arab Emirates in terms of population and the largest of the seven member emirates of the United Arab Emirates. Abu Dhabi lies on a T-shaped island jutting into the Persian Gulf from the central western...

. In June, Forbin operated with the USS Eisenhower carrier group, supporting operation Enduring Freedom and maritime security operations (pictured).

Second cruise

The frigate Forbin was part of the French naval task group led by the Charles de Gaulle that departed Toulon

Toulon

Toulon is a town in southern France and a large military harbor on the Mediterranean coast, with a major French naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region, Toulon is the capital of the Var department in the former province of Provence....

 on 30 October 2010 for a four-month deployment to the Mediterranean Sea, Red Sea, Indian Ocean. and Persian Gulf. The task group commander, Rear Admiral Jean-Louis Kerignard, defined force's mission as follows:

The force would help allied navies fight piracy off the coast of Somalia and send jets to support NATO in the skies above Afghanistan."

Once on station, the Charles de Gaulle carrier task group joined two U.S. Navy carrier strike group

Carrier Strike Group

A carrier strike group is an operational formation of the United States Navy. It is composed of roughly 7,500 personnel, an aircraft carrier, at least one cruiser, a destroyer squadron of at least two destroyers and/or frigates, and a carrier air wing of 65 to 70 aircraft...

s led by the Nimitz class aircraft carrier

Nimitz class aircraft carrier

The Nimitz-class supercarriers are a class of ten nuclear-powered aircraft carriers in service with the United States Navy. With an overall length of and full-load displacements of over 100,000 long tons, they are the largest capital ships in the world...

 aircraft carriers

Supercarrier

Supercarrier is an unofficial descriptive term for the largest type of aircraft carrier, usually displacing over 70,000 long tons.Supercarrier is an unofficial descriptive term for the largest type of aircraft carrier, usually displacing over 70,000 long tons.Supercarrier is an unofficial...

  and operating in the Persian Gulf (pictured). Subsequently, between 7–14 January 2011, the French carrier task group led by the Charles de Gaulle participated with bilateral naval exercise, code named Varuna 10

Varuna naval exercises

The Varuna naval exercises are annual naval cooperation drills between the French Navy and the Indian Navy. The two navies usually meet in the Indian Ocean and coordinate efforts on everything from minesweeping to anti-submarine warfare...

, with the Indian Navy

Indian Navy

The Indian Navy is the naval branch of the armed forces of India. The President of India serves as the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy. The Chief of Naval Staff , usually a four-star officer in the rank of Admiral, commands the Navy...

. Indian naval units participating in Varuna 10 included the aircraft carrier

Centaur class aircraft carrier

The Centaur class of aircraft carriers of the British Royal Navy was the last of the light fleet carrier designs started during the closing years of World War II.-Ships In Class:HMS Centaur...

 , the frigates

Godavari Class Frigate

The Godavari class frigates are guided-missile frigates of the Indian Navy. The Godavari class was the first significant indigenous warship design and development initiative of the Indian Navy...

  and ; and the diesel-electric submarine . Varuna 10 was a two-phase naval exercise, with the harbor phase taking place between 7–11 January and the sea phase between 11–14 January in the Arabian Sea

Arabian Sea

The Arabian Sea is a region of the Indian Ocean bounded on the east by India, on the north by Pakistan and Iran, on the west by the Arabian Peninsula, on the south, approximately, by a line between Cape Guardafui in northeastern Somalia and Kanyakumari in India...

.

External links

• Frigate Forbin Forbin on Alabordache
• Netmarine.net Photographs of the construction and the launching