''Georges Leygues'' (D640) was the

lead ship The lead ship, name ship, or class leader is the first of a series or class of ships all constructed according to the same general design. The term is applicable to naval ships and large civilian vessels. Large ships are very complex and may ...

of the F70 type anti-submarine frigate of the French ''

Marine Nationale 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 th ...

''. The French Navy does not use the term "

destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, manoeuvrable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against powerful short range attackers. They were originally developed ...

" for its ships; hence some large ships, referred to as "

frigates A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied somewhat. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and ...

", are registered as destroyers. She was the second French vessel named after the 19–20th century politician and Navy Minister,

Georges Leygues Georges Leygues (; 29 October 1856 – 2 September 1933) was a French politician of the Third Republic. During his time as Minister of Marine he worked with the navy's chief of staff Henri Salaun in unsuccessful attempts to gain naval re-arm ...

. She was the tender for the former helicopter cruiser ''

Jeanne d'Arc Joan of Arc (french: link=yes, Jeanne d'Arc, translit= �an daʁk} ; 1412 – 30 May 1431) is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the coronati ...

''.

Service history

In 1981, ''Georges Leygues'' and the fleet escort ''Guépratte'', cruising in front of an Allied fleet during training sessions, detected a Soviet submarine, which they chased for 19 hours. A rare instance of submarine warfare occurred, the Soviet submarine tried running at and diving under the sonar of ''Georges Leygues'' to try to avoid detection, before she was forced to surface, being formally identified as a

Victor class submarine The Victor class, Soviet designations Project 671 ''Yorsh'', Project 671RT ''Syomga'' and Project 671RTM/RTMK ''Shchuka'', (NATO reporting names Victor I, Victor II and Victor III, respectively), are series of nuclear-powered attack submarines ...

by the on-board Lynx WG13. The same year, ''Georges Leygues'' intervened when the

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

ian ship ''Tabarzin'' was captured by a commando hostile to the new regime, and sailed to France. The commando reached France and requested political refugee status, while the ship was returned to Iran. In 1987, France and Iran having broken off diplomatic relations, ''Georges Leygues'' escorted commercial ships in the Persian Gulf. In 1992, ''Georges Leygues'' took part in

Operation Restore Hope The Unified Task Force (UNITAF) was a United States-led, United Nations-sanctioned multinational force which operated in Somalia from 5 December 1992 until 4 May 1993. A United States initiative (code-named Operation Restore Hope), U ...

Somalia Somalia, , Osmanya script: 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒕𐒖; ar, الصومال, aṣ-Ṣūmāl officially the Federal Republic of SomaliaThe ''Federal Republic of Somalia'' is the country's name per Article 1 of thProvisional Constitut ...

. In 1999, she was partially modified to accommodate student officers, and started tending the cruiser ''Jeanne d'Arc'' in the context of the training voyages of the French Naval Academy. The same year, after catastrophic flooding occurred in

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

the two ships were re-routed to deliver humanitarian aid. In early 2004, after the

2004 Haitian coup d'état A coup d'état in Haiti on 29 February 2004, following several weeks of conflict, resulted in the removal of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from office. On 5 February 2004, a rebel group, called the National Revolutionary Front for the Lib ...

, ''Jeanne d'Arc'' and ''Georges Leygues'' were re-routed to assist in the French intervention there. In December the same year, the two ships intervened in Indonesia after the

2004 Indian Ocean earthquake An earthquake and a tsunami, known as the Boxing Day Tsunami and, by the scientific community, the Sumatra–Andaman earthquake, occurred at 07:58:53 local time ( UTC+7) on 26 December 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of northern ...

. In 2011, the frigate took part in the evacuation of the civilians from Tunisia. The ship was decommissioned on 21 March 2014.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Georges Leygues Georges Leygues-class frigates Frigates of France 1976 ships Ships built in France