The T 53 class were the second group of destroyers built for 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 ...

after World War II. These ships were a modified version of the s. The main difference with the preceding ships was the provision of improved air warning and tracking radars as well as an anti-submarine mortar. The ships were built between 1957 and 1958 and were decommissioned in the late 1970s or early 1980s. A single modified ship ''La Galissonnière'' was built as a trials ship for a new generation of French weapons. This ship was designated as the T 56 class.

Modifications

In 1972–73 two of the class were substantially modified: * ''Duperré'' was completely rearmed with a Model 1968 main gun, four Exocet MM38 missiles, two quadruple L5 torpedo launchers, and two 20 mm AA cannon. She was also fitted with a helipad to carry a Lynx WG13 helicopter. * ''Forbin'' had her forward 57 mm turret removed, and her aft 127 mm turret was replaced by a helipad. She was then principally used as a naval aviation training ship alongside the helicopter cruiser .

''La Galissonnière''

''La Galissonnière'' differed slightly in specification from the rest of the class as she was built specifically to test the

Malafon Malafon (MArine LAtécoère FONds) was a French ship-launched anti-submarine missile system. Developed in the 1950s and 1960s, the weapon was intended to take advantage of the greater detection ranges possible with towed sonar arrays. The missil ...

anti-submarine missile. * Length : * Beam : * Draught : * Complement: 272 * 2 × Model 1953 guns (1×2) * 1 ×

anti-submarine missile launcher (13 missiles) * 6 × torpedo tubes (2×3) * 1 × quadruple

anti-submarine mortar Anti-submarine mortars are artillery pieces deployed on ships for the purpose of sinking submarines by a direct hit with a small explosive charge. They are often larger versions of the mortar used by infantry and fire a projectile in relatively t ...

* 2 × 20 mm AA cannon * 1 ×

Alouette II Alouette or alouettes may refer to: Music and literature * "Alouette" (song), a French-language children's song * Alouette, a character in ''The King of Braves GaoGaiGar'' Aerospace * SNCASE Alouette, a utility helicopter developed in France i ...

or Alouette III helicopter French destroyer La Galissonnière (D638) underway in the Mediterranean Sea, circa in 1983

Ships

References

Bibliography

* Conway's ''All the World's Fighting Ships 1947–1995'' *

External links