''La Combattante'' (P730) ("The Fighter") was a fast patrol vessel of the

French Navy The French Navy (french: Marine nationale, lit=National Navy), informally , is the maritime arm of the French Armed Forces and one of the five military service branches of France. It is among the largest and most powerful naval forces in t ...

. She was built in 1963 and was to be the prototype for a class of coastal patrol craft. ''La Combattante'' was operational in the French Navy from 1963 until 1985, when she was transferred to the French Coast Guard. She was discarded in 1994.

Design and construction

''La Combattante'' was ordered from

Constructions Mécaniques de Normandie Construction is the process of producing buildings and other infrastructure. Construction also may refer to: * Additional physical/mechanical senses: ** Offshore construction, the installation of structures in marine environments * Primarily abst ...

(CMN),

Cherbourg Cherbourg (; , , ), nrf, Chèrbourg, ) is a former commune and subprefecture located at the northern end of the Cotentin peninsula in the northwestern French department of Manche. It was merged into the commune of Cherbourg-Octeville on 28 Feb ...

, on 5 December 1961. She was launched on 20 June 1963 and was completed in March 1964. ''La Combattante'' was built of laminated wood and plastic, in order to have a small magnetic signature. She had an armament of one 40mm and two 12.7mm machine-guns, and a speed of 23 knots.Conway p127 Her design inspired a series of similar vessels, including that of the ''Circé'' class coastal

minehunter A minehunter is a naval vessel that seeks, detects, and destroys individual naval mines. Minesweepers, on the other hand, clear mined areas as a whole, without prior detection of mines. A vessel that combines both of these roles is known as a ...

s built by CMN in the 1990s, and the "La Combattante" type

missile boat A missile boat or missile cutter is a small, fast warship armed with anti-ship missiles. Being smaller than other warships such as destroyers and frigates, missile boats are popular with nations interested in forming a navy at lower cost. They a ...

s built by CMN for export.

Service history

''La Combattante'' was commissioned on 1 March 1964, and saw service in France and overseas, in the French

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...

and

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

territories. In the late 60's ''La Combattante'' was used as the launch vehicle for trials of the

Aérospatiale Aérospatiale (), sometimes styled Aerospatiale, was a French state-owned aerospace manufacturer that built both civilian and military aircraft, rockets and satellites. It was originally known as Société nationale industrielle aérospatiale ( ...

Exocet The Exocet () is a French-built anti-ship missile whose various versions can be launched from surface vessels, submarines, helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. Etymology The missile's name was given by M. Guillot, then the technical director ...

missile. Following the success of these, and the adoption of the Exocet by the French Navy, ''La Combattante'' was equipped with four SS11 launchers. In January 1985 ''La Combattante'' was transferred to the ''

Maritime Gendarmerie The Maritime Gendarmerie (french: Gendarmerie maritime) is a component of the French National Gendarmerie under operational control of the chief of staff of the French Navy. It employs 1,157 personnel and operates around thirty patrol boats and h ...

'', the French coastguard service; her missile launchers were removed, though she kept her gun armament. In 1994 ''La Combattante'' was stricken.

Notes

References

* Gardiner, Robert; Chumbley, Stephen '' Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1947–1995'' (1995) Naval Institute Press, Annapolis

External links

''La Combattante''
at netmarine.net (French) {{DEFAULTSORT:La Combattante, French patrol vessel Patrol vessels of the French Navy Ships built in France