The Rhône, the second of the French Navy’s four new Metropolitan Support and Assistance Ships (BSAM, ex-BSAH), has been officially admitted to active service.
Built at CHANTIERS PIRIOU in Concarneau (France) and delivered in April 2018 by KERSHIP, the Rhône recently returned from her first Long Duration Deployment (LLD), during which she sailed a circumpolar 19,000 nautical miles, including the North-East Passage, from the Norwegian Sea to the Bering Strait. She returned to her home port of Brest after transiting the Panama Canal.
At the signing ceremony on 22 January, the French Navy’s Chief of Staff, Admiral Prazuck, paid tribute to this deployment to the Arctic zone by sailing through the North-East Passage unassisted for the first time in the French Navy’s history.
Source: French Navy
The Garonne, the fourth and final vessel in this program, is currently being fitted out in Concarneau and will join the Rhône in Brest this year.