Mediterranean Naval Forces

Gents we have three or four threads with Syrian war talk going...I'm going to make a mega thread for that subject. Give me a few minutes..

If you post is missing you may find it here

http://www.sinodefenceforum.com/world-armed-forces/syrian-crisis-2013-a-6551.html

popeye

French Naval Force

The French have committed their Charles de Gaulle carrier group, and one of their Horizon class anti-air destroyers, the Chevalier Paul (D621).

Usually the carrier has a couple of frigates and at least one destroyer with it, as well as one of their Rubis class SSNs. Here they are for comparison:

Charels de Gaulle (R91) Class CVN (one)


Displace: 42,000 tons
Length: 261.5 m
Beam: 64.3 m
Draft: 9.4 m
Speed: 27+ knots
Crew: 1,950
Armament:
- 4 x 8 VLS cells for Aster 15 missles
- 2 x 6 Sadral launchers for Misral missiles
- 8 x 20mm CIWS
Aircraft: 40 aircraft
- Rafale M
- Super Etendard
- E-2C Hawkeye
- SA365 Dauphin helo
- AS532 Cougar helo

Chevalier Paul (D621) Forbin Class DDG (one)


Displace: 7,000 tons
Length: 153.5 m
Beam: 20.3 m
Draft: 5.4 m
Speed: 29+ knots
Crew: 136
Armament:
- 48 x VLS cells for Aster 15 & 30 missles
- 1 x 6 Sadral launchers for Misral missiles
- 8 x Exocet anti shipping missiles
- 2 x 76mm main DP guns
- 2 x 3 Torpedo tubes
- 2 x 20mm CIWS
Aircraft: 1 ASW helo & hanger

Aquitaine (D650) FREMM Class FFG (one)


Displace: 6,000 tons
Length: 142 m
Beam: 20 m
Draft: 5 m
Speed: 29+ knots
Crew: 145
Armament:
- 16 x VLS cells for Aster 15 missles
- 16 x VLS cells for SCALP land attack missiles
- 8 x Exocet anti shipping missiles
- 1 x 76mm main DP gun
Aircraft: 1 ASW helo & hanger

Georges Leygues (D640) Class DDG (one)


Displace: 4,500 tons
Length: 139 m
Beam: 14 m
Draft: 5.8 m
Speed: 30+ knots
Crew: 235
Armament:
- 8 x Crotale missiles (+18 stored)
- 2 x 2 Mistral missiles
- 4 x Exocet anti shipping missiles
- 1 x 100 mm main DP gun
- 2 x 5 torpedo launchers
- 2 x 20mm CIWS
Aircraft: 2 ASW helos & hanger

Aconit (F713) Lafayette Class FFG (one)


Displace: 3,200 tons
Length: 125 m
Beam: 15.4 m
Draft: 4.8 m
Speed: 32+ knots
Crew: 299
Armament:
- 8 x Crotale missiles (+18 stored)
- 6 x Exocet anti shipping missiles
- 2 x 100 mm main DP gun
- 2 x 5 torpedo launchers
- 2 x 20mm CIWS
Aircraft: 2 ASW helos & hanger

Pearl (S606) Rubis Class SSN (one)


Displace: 2,600 tons
Length: 73.6 m
Beam: 7.6 m
Draft: 6.4 m
Speed: 25+ knots
Crew: 70
Armament:
- 4 x 533 mm tubes 14 weapons
Weapons include torpedos, Excocet missiles, mines
Aircraft: None

Nice, some precisions, for the moment the Charles de Gaulle is always in Toulon.

The carrier group have also one CS in general the "Meuse" because he take more aviation fuel in relation to its sister ships.

From one year the last De Grasse was removed.

FORBIN said:

From one year the last De Grasse was removed.

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Oh, I see. she was decommissioned in May of this year. My bad. She was the last of the Tourville class DDGs. I thought she was due to be decommissioned late this year.

But, since she is already decommissioned, I will update my prior post and take her off of the list.

Thanks.

A complement for G. Leygues, ships have different number of weapons :
SSM : some have 4 others 8.
Mistral : 0/12.
Lynx : all 1 now before 2.

For the moment Nimitz Strike group stay on station, near Red Sea.
Composition : Nimitz, CG Princeton, DDG Stockdale, Lawrence, Shoup, Higgins and ofc one CS and SSN.
CVW 11 : 2 squ of F/A-18E/F, 2 squ of F/A-18C ( one USMC ) , EA-6B old warrior ! and E-2 ...

FORBIN said:

CVW 11 : 2 squ of F/A-18E/F, 2 squ of F/A-18C ( one USMC ) , EA-6B old warrior ! and E-2 ...

Click to expand...

The detailed composition of those squadrons in the air wing is:

VFA-136 - F/A-18C Hornets "Blue Diamonds" 12 Aircraft
VMFA-323 - F/A-18C Hornets "Death Rattlers" (USMC) 12 Aircraft
VFA-146 - F/A-18E Super Hornets "Blue Diamonds" 12 Aircraft
VFA-147 - F/A-18F Super Hornets "Argonauts" 12 Aircraft
VAQ-142 - EA-6B Prowers "Gray Wolves" 5 Aircraft
VAW-117 - E-2C Hawkeyes "Wall-bangers" 5 Aircraft
HSC-6 - MH-60S Seahawks "Screaming Indians" 5 Aircraft
HSM-75 - MH-60R Seahawks "Wolf Pack" 5 Aircraft

There will also be an detachment of two C-2 Greyhounds aboard, so that makes a total of 70 aircraft.

VISHNYA Class Intelligence Surveillance (One):
Displacement - 3,470 tons
Length: 94.5 m
Beam: 14.6 m
Draft: 4.5 m
Speed: 16 knots
Crew: 146
Armament:
- 02 x AK-630 30mm CIWS
- 02 x AS-N-8 AAW Missiles
Aircraft: None

DefenseNews said:

MOSCOW — Russia has sent a reconnaissance vessel from its Black Sea fleet to the coast off Syria as Moscow anxiously watches Western plans for military action against the Damascus regime, a report said Monday, Sepotember 2, 2013.

The SSV-201 intelligence ship Priazovye, SSV-201, a Vishnya Class intelligence Ship, started its voyage on Sunday evening from its home port of Sevastopol in Ukraine “to the appointed region of military service in the eastern Mediterranean,” a military source told the Interfax news agency.

“The crew has the mission ... of collecting operative information in the region of an escalating conflict,” it added. The source said that the ship’s deployment was carried out within the minimum time possible.

The source said that the ship would not be a formal part of the group of warships from the Russian Navy currently in the region and would be reporting directly to the general staff in Moscow.

A source in the general staff had told Interfax last week that Rusia wanted to receive the maximum information about the possible military action in the interests of Russian state security.

“We intend ... to thoroughly analyze the tactics of the protagonists in a possible conflict,” a general staff source told the news agency.

Russia has kept a constant presence of around four warships in the eastern Mediterranean during the Syrian crisis, rotating them every few months.

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Russia has seven of these purpose built, 3,470 ton Intelligence Ships that were specifically built to gather SIGINT (Signals Intelligence) and COMINT (Communications Intelligence) from potential adversaries. This one, the Priazov'ye, was commissioned in 1987 and serves in the Russian Black Sea Fleet.

If the US is going to bomb Syria it should also try to degrade the extremist elements in the rebel ranks.Al Nusra should be on notice