French ship Monge

History

France
Name:	Monge
Namesake:	Gaspard Monge
Builder:	Chantiers de l'Atlantique, Saint-Nazaire
Laid down:	26 March 1990
Launched:	6 October 1990
In service:	4 November 1992
Status:	Active
General characteristics
Type:	Tracking ship
Displacement:	21,000 tonnes
Length:	225.6 m (740 ft 2 in)
Beam:	24.84 m (81 ft 6 in)
Draught:	7.60 m (24 ft 11 in)
Propulsion:	2 SEMT Pielstick 8PC 2.5 L400 diesels One shaft One 1,000 kW (1,300 hp) bow propeller
Speed:	16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph)
Range:	15,000 nmi (28,000 km; 17,000 mi) at 15 kn (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Endurance:	60 days
Complement:	21 officers 15 civilian technicians of the General Directorate for Armament 120 petty officiers 45 quarter-masters and seamen
Sensors and processing systems:	4 trajectography radars in C band (2 Armor, 1 Gascogne and 1 Normandie). Telemeasurement station with 6 air antennas, including 2 Antarès 7 various telemetry and optronic tracking antennas One LIDAR One Tavitac 2000 combat direction system 2 DRBN-34 (Racal Decca) navigation and landing radars 1 DRBV 15C radar combined de veille combiné ; Navstar SENIN Satellite communication systems (Syracuse II, Inmarsat).
Armament:	2 × 20 mm modèle F2 gun 2 × 12.7 mm machine guns
Aircraft carried:	650 m² plateforme and 180 m² hangar, can operate heavy helicopters. One Aérospatiale Alouette III as of 2006.

4 trajectography radars in C band (2 Armor, 1 Gascogne and 1 Normandie). Telemeasurement station with 6 air antennas, including 2 Antarès 7 various telemetry and optronic tracking antennas One LIDAR One Tavitac 2000 combat direction system 2 DRBN-34 (Racal Decca) navigation and landing radars 1 DRBV 15C radar combined de veille combiné ; Navstar SENIN

Monge (A601), named after the 18th century mathematician Gaspard Monge, is a Missile Range Instrumentation Ship of the French Navy dedicated to tracking and measuring rocket trajectories. She was built for the trials of the Submarine-launched ballistic missiles of the Navy, and is also used to monitor the launch of Ariane rockets. Monge is one of the few ships in the world to have this capacity.

The systems in Monge allow the vessel to track missiles and satellites. There are two navigational radars and a DRBV 15C air surveillance radar installed. The intelligence systems are a Stratus Gascogne, two Armor-radarsystemy, two Savoie and Antares missile-tracking radars, a laser-radar, and an optical tracking unit, furthermore 14 antennas for telemetry.

The ship is painted white because the normal darker grey of warships would heat up the ship more, which could cause malfunctions of the electronic systems inside.

Arriving Reykjavik Harbour, May 2012

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