The ''La Combattante'' patrol boat was a type of
fast attack craft
A fast attack craft (FAC) is a small, fast, agile, offensive, often affordable warship armed with anti-ship missiles, gun or torpedoes. FACs are usually operated in close proximity to land as they lack both the seakeeping and all-round defensive ...
built in
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
for export during the 1970s and '80s. It went through several modifications and was sold to, and operated by, numerous navies around the world.
Development
The ''La Combattante'' was a German-French joint venture, proposed by the German government to combine a
Lürssen
Lürssen (or Lürssen Werft) is a German shipyard with headquarters in Bremen-Vegesack and shipbuilding facilities in Lemwerder, Berne and Bremen-Fähr-Lobbendorf.
Lürssen designs and constructs yachts, naval ships and special vessels. Tradin ...
-designed fast patrol boat with
Aerospatiale's
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. However the French government insisted on a French design 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) in
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 ...
and for half the boats in the order to be built in France. The name was derived from the vessel used for trials of the Exocet, the patrol craft
''La Combattante (P730)''.
La Combattante II
The first group of boats were the 20 built for the German ''
Bundesmarine
The German Navy (, ) is the navy of Germany and part of the unified ''Bundeswehr'' (Federal Defense), the German Armed Forces. The German Navy was originally known as the ''Bundesmarine'' (Federal Navy) from 1956 to 1995, when ''Deutsche Mari ...
'', commissioned in 1968 as the
Tiger class. A number of these were later sold on to the navies of Greece, Chile and Egypt.
Following this, between 1968 and 1974 CMN built a further 37 vessels, known as
La Combattante II, for the navies of Iran (12 ''Kaman'' class), Malaysia (four ''Perdana'' class) and Libya (nine ''Beir Grassa'' class). In the same period CMN built 12 fast attack craft to a similar design for Israel (the Sa'ar 1-3 classes) which are included by some sources in the type.
These vessels were typically of 234 tons displacement and 47 metres in length, and a typical armament of 1x76mm gun forward, 4x Exocet missiles in box launchers amidships, and a 40mm gun aft, though actual outfits varied according to the operators requirements.
La Combattante III
In 1975 CMN modified the design, adding 9 metres to the length to improve seaworthiness and give more internal space; this gave a displacement of 359 tons and an overall length of 56 metres, though the armament remained the same. This design was designated La Combattante III.
Between 1975 and 1990 a further 19 were built for the navies of Greece, Tunisia, Qatar, and Nigeria. In addition were built for Israel (the Sa'ar 4 class), five in France and the remainder under licence in Israel. The Israelis also built, or assisted in building, nine vessels for South Africa, at the time under embargo for its Apartheid policy.
[Preston p179-180]
Further developments
Apart from the Israelis, Greece and Iran also built vessels developed from the La Combattante designs; these were the six Greek vessels (simply known as La Combattante IIIb) and nine Iranian ''Sina'' class.
CMN have also continued to modernize the equipment and armaments of these designs, with the
Combattante FS46 and
FS56 models.
Notes
References
* Gardiner, Robert; Chumbley, Stephen '' Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1947–1995'' (1995) Naval Institute Press, , Annapolis
* Preston, Antony ''The World's Worst Warships'' (2002) Conway Maritime Press
External links
Combattante type vessels at CMN group website{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201125215735/https://cmn-group.com/products-and-services/military-vessels/combattante/ , date=2020-11-25
Patrol vessels of France
Missile boat classes
Ship classes of the French Navy