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28 March 2023
by Kate Tringham
The new diving tenders will be used by the French Navy primarily for operations in shallow waters. (Merre Shipyard)
France’s Direction Générale de l’Armement (DGA) defence procurement agency has given the green light to start series production of seven diving tenders (Vedettes de soutien à la plongée – VSPs) for the French Navy following successful trials of the prototype boat.
The eight VSPs are being procured to replace nine Dionée-class diving tenders that entered service between 1990 and 1996 and will be used primarily for mine-countermeasures (MCM) operations in shallow waters.
BMA Group’s Merré Shipyard in Nort-sur-Erdre was awarded a contract for the first boat in December 2019, with options for seven additional units to be exercised following successful trials and evaluations.
First-of-class
Ophrys
was set afloat in April 2022 and handed over to the DGA on 14 November 2022 to start a three-month period of operational use by the French Navy’s clearance divers in Toulon.
In a 23 March announcement, DGA said that while the operational evaluation of
Ophrys
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