French Gendarmerie Calls For Tender For New Patrol Boats

Saithan · Aug 19, 2021

The patrol boat 'Jonquille' (P721) is the second of four vessels of the Geranium class. The latter is expected to be replaced by the vessels planned by the tender. French MoD photo

The French armament procurement agency (DGA) has launched a new call for tenders to replace the four current coastal patrol boats of the Gendarmerie Maritime - equivalent to Coast Guards - on August 11.

Martin Manaranche 19 Aug 2021
An announce to design and build two new coastal patrol boats was already made in May 2020, but received no response.

The tender published this month covers the design and production of six vessels with an additional batch of 3 vessels in option, their associated services and their maintenance for five years.

They will be based in metropolitan France and in the overseas territories. The planned distribution is as follows: Cherbourg (2), Lorient (1+1 optional), Toulon (1+1 optional), Pointe-À-Pitre, Guadeloupe (1) and Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia (1 + 1 optional).

Regarding the technical specifications, these vessels will have a length equal to or less than 46 meters with a speed of approximately 20 knots. The hull should be made of steel or aluminum.

Each patrol boat will be equipped with a ‘fast intervention boat’ – probably a rigid-hull inflatable boat (RHIB) – and optronic surveillance means. In terms of armaments, they will be fitted with a 12.7mm machine gun as main gun and 2 Mags 7.62mm mountings.

The patrol boats will be able to carry out missions lasting approximately 7 days without refuelling. The crew will consist in 16 personnels and a possibility to host 8 additional persons.