Breaking news
Simultaneous Double Anti-Ship Missile Test for French Navy Indian Ocean Fleet Light Frigates.
| 2014
 French Navy surveillance frigates Floréal and Nivôse simultaneously launch their MM38 Exocet anti-ship missile during an exercise off Reunion island in the Indian Ocean. Picture: French Navy |
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This
live fire exercise on a dummy target was carried out in real conditions.
Its goal was to train both crews in simultaneous strikes by saturation
against a common surface target, thus perpetuating a complex skill. The exercise was conducted while the surveillance frigate Floréal was on its way home following a two months deployement for Operation Atalanta (fight against maritime piracy off Somalia) and a patrol in the exclusive economic zones (EEZ) of the French Scattered Islands in the Mozambique channel. |
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 The second MM38 Exocet anti-ship missile is launched from the Floréal surveillance frigate Picture: French Navy |
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The
MM38 is the first generation of MBDA's Exocet family of anti-ship missiles.
It is a combat-proven sea-skimming, subsonic, fire-and-forget missile
with a range of about 40 Km. It entered service in 1975 with the French
Navy. It has since been replaced by the MM40 block 1,2 and 3. Nowadays,
Floréal class surveillance frigates are the only French Navy vessels
still fitted with the MM38. |
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 Floréal Class Frigate (picture: French Navy) |
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