Name La Motte-Picquet Commissioned 18 February 1988 Construction started 12 February 1982 Length 139 m Draft 5.8 m | Laid down 12 February 1982 Status in active service Launched 6 February 1985 Weight 3,550 tons Builder Brest Arsenal | |
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Namesake Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte Class and type Georges Leygues-class frigate | ||
La Motte-Picquet is a F70 type anti-submarine frigate of the French Marine Nationale. She is the fourth French vessel named after the 18th Century admiral count Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte. As of January 2012 she is serving in the Persian Gulf.
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Service history
On 22 August 2007, she took custody of the Danish freighter Danica White which had been captured by pirates on 3 June.
2011/12 tour
She left Brest on 9 November 2011 for active duty in the Indian Ocean and was refuelled by the US replenishment ship USNS Patuxent on 10 January 2012. On 22 January she passed through the Straits of Hormuz with the British frigate HMS Argyll and a US battlegroup centred on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln.
Opération Chammal
In November 2015, a French Navy press release stated that La Motte-Picquet will be part of the Charles de Gaulle task force launching strikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant starting January 2016.
Tracking Russian warships
In March 2016, La Motte-Picquet shadowed the Russian destroyer Vice-Admiral Kulakov, an oiler and a tugboat as it passed near French waters.
British-French CJEF
La Motte-Picquet will be part of the Anglo-French CJEF exercise.