How the French Navy achieves 80% frigate availability

Added: 2026-05-15

[00:00:16]Hi, we're at the Combine Naval event 2025 just outside London in the UK and I am now very pleased to meet with Commander Matio. He's the deputy director of the technical division of the French Navy's fleet support services. The reason I wanted to uh talk to you is uh because back in February during the Paris naval conference uh Amir Vjour who is the chief of staff of the French Navy announced that uh the French Navy has achieved now 80% availability for its first rank frigates on vessels. or the the the frame frig uh the horizon type destroyers. So first rank surface combatant this is a very impressive uh availability rate. Uh this number has impressed number of partner navies uh of the French Navy. Can you please tell us how did the French Navy achieved such uh very such an impressive result? Well, I guess it's a conjunction of various factors and I think that the key elements to uh see is that first of all you have the commitment of the crews that are key for the daily uh MRO and also the support they provide during the uh normal uh technical stops that uh we uh manage and supervise and execute us at the French uh Navy support service.

[00:01:47]The second one is the organization of the SSF of the fleet navy support service. Uh the operations that deals with the uh same class or same types of ships uh are autonomous and are um are able to have that flexibility to address technical issues uh technical stops really swiftly. Furthermore, behind the crew you have Nav. And Chiknav has decided to uh implement a dual crew uh on very on selected frames um to uh to be able to augment uh the operational uh uh capability of these ships. So from roughly 120 days at sea per year you can go up to roughly 170 180 and that's also something that contributes to have a overall u operational availability to up to 80%.

[00:02:55]And finally you have the commitment of industry and that's also important industry the crew and the SSF.

[00:03:04]And this uh well I believe during the same conference back in February Mour said thanks to this uh 80% figure he basically almost almost gets two vessel out of a single vessel. Uh how does this uh translate uh in the field or at sea?

[00:03:23]Uh there was recently the French CSG successfully completed the claims 25 deployment. Uh I believe there was a well unprecedented number of uh es French escorts in the in the cryost strike group. Is that a result of that high availability rate? Uh yes. I think this is the the good example of what we've been able to achieve lately in terms of uh anti-air warfare frame one.

[00:03:56]We had a orzone class anti-air warfare and we also had anti-ubmarine warfare friends. So that that allowed and contributed to address let's say the the the vast bulk and majority of the threats they were supposed to uh to uh to uh sustain and also because they were the escorts of the shall or CVN and that's also a good success.

[00:04:22]Uh you can see that despite some uh technical failures because the more you operate the more opportunity to break down you have uh the plan has come has been really executed smoothly with no major let's say issues like one frig that is stuck at birth uh for extended period. So that was really transparent for everybody and uh for some figures there's been 12 industrial missions during the full deployment of uh of CLOS 25.

[00:05:00]>> What do you mean by industrial missions?

[00:05:03]So some uh in some cases uh you need technical experts from uh the back office of the industry be it n groups for example and this has also contributed uh to be able to project uh industry and finally and that's something that you need to highlight on board the LSS uh we have also projected we have embedded some uh um some personnel of the military workshop uh from mainland France in order to uh to get a um let's say swifter resolution of failures uh directly within the force. So the you mentioned the LSS. So that's the new Jacalier uh replenishment tanker. Uh so you're again a logistic expert. Uh this vessel and you worked on the program by the way at Okar. Uh this vessel brings uh tremendous new capabilities compared to the uh old J class. Can can you confirm? Uh I confirm it uh really uh fully and um I really think that uh have having been a chief engineer of the old uh flagship tanker class uh Dance it was the flagship tamper s and having been able to uh to really uh let's say roll out the full design uh construction qualification and acceptance process of the LSS.

[00:06:42]I really confirm it's a it's a huge leap forward in terms of technology means and capabilities you have on board stores in terms of stores in terms of also self-defense you can really highlight this I mean uh on board this this ship it's normally it's a tanker you have simmed RC you will have the the 40 mm gun uh it's uh you can have a fully I think it's 40 packs plus uh HQ float. So, it's really a Swiss knife, but really on a on a scale that is really unprecedented as you said before.

[00:07:24]>> And uh speaking of unprecedented, and we covered it last year, but uh they conducted a number of first uh with the Jakali last year. They uh transferred a surface to wear a storm missile on board the Sher goal that was then lowered into the the silo. They uh tested the tendering of submarines in the Neville base. They tested the reloading of frame VLSS with the cranes from the Jaku. So like yeah, tremendous capabilities. The French Navy will get four of these vessels. Yes, the the second LSS the LSS is uh currently under sea trials in San and the third uh LSS which uh is under construction with the bow section being uh built in Castalamar Distabia in in Italy.

[00:08:18]>> Very well. Thank you very much for highlighting uh well answering our questions on that high availability rate and the uh clay monster 25 and the the new class. Thank you very much.

[00:08:29]>> Thank you.