RDF French Navy?

[Olefin]

In the RDF there is this one line about the French naval part of the FAR

"The naval component is built
around the Guided Missile Cruiser Jean Bart, and her escorts."

but no details are offered in the module when French forces are detailed

ok - so what would be the escorts for the Jean Bart?

[Rainbow Six]

Interesting...a quick glance at wikipedia shows that the Jean Bart (D615) is an anti air frigate / destroyer (the French Navy doesn't use the term destroyer so it's difficult to say for sure which she is) and wasn't commissioned until 1991 (which I think was after the module was published?) so it would appear that GDW were speculating when referring to the Guided Missile Cruiser Jean Bart.

Perhaps the French had plans for such a class of ship in the 80's but shelved them at the end of the Cold War. The only contemporary cruiser type ship listed for the French navy is the helicopter carrier Jeanne d'Arc (R97) which was decommissioned in 2010.

[Olefin]

I think that may be what they were talking about - i.e. the helicopter carrier Jeanne d'Arc as you just said.

Whats interesting is that they went to the trouble to say there was a French task group in the area and then didnt detail it - and then didnt even get the right ship as the command ship.

[Rainbow Six]

Based on a quick skim through wiki, either the Foudre (L9011) or Siroco (L9012) might also be good candidates to be in the French fleet (and possibly be the command ship).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foudre_..._platform_dock

[simonmark6]

The RDF sourcebook was written in 1986 and the Jean Bart was laid down in 1988 so it's possible that they might have known of the ship. The last Jean Bart was a 50K ton battleship so they might have posited that the next ship to bare the name would be larger than a 4.5K ton frigate.

The Jean D'Arc was in existence when the book was written so they might not have meant that. However, if my research is correct, the Jean D'Arc could only hold 5-8 helicopters at best and would have had a serious job trying to keep those going given space and weight concerns so replacing one with the other wouldn't be too unbalancing in my opinion.

If the Jean D'Arc was the centre of the task force I'd suggest the Jean Bart as close in support with maybe a couple of destroyers as a reaction force. If there were any French Landing ships left I'd suggest this would be the place for it as getting troops on the ground amphibiously would be more useful here than in some other theatres.

[Fusilier]

I'm guessing whatever French warships are in the area, probably equals or exceeds the listed US naval presence.

US influence in the middle east is waning while the French are expanding their dominance in the region.

For example, the governments of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait both gave permission for the French to occupy their territory - regardless of what the Americans felt about the matter. They've also managed to safely deploy very strong military forces in the area and unlike the US navy, are not only able to continually maintain the the FAR, but they are also able to supply local nations too.

This suggests to me that they have strong naval assets in the middle east and possibly in Djibouti and other places between the Gulf and France.

[Olefin]

I disagree Fusilier - the French have a much smaller navy than the US and its not like they have no other obligations

And the US has an active small carrier in the region

The RDF didnt mention Foch or Clemenceau being there and that is what it would take to be bigger than the US

Most likely we are looking at four to five ships at most, maybe as few as three plus various support ships

Plus the US fleet in the RDF isnt fully described - the small patrol ships that are mentioned in the module arent defined and there has to be some larger support ships for that task force - at the least an oiler and some kind of support vessel

However long term the RDF forces would be going home - and then the French definitely would be the dominant naval force in the region, especially with most likely the Indian and Paki fleets being gone