The La Fayette has one helicopter landing pad along the aft deck and can accommodate a single rotary-wing aircraft up to a maximum weight of 10 tons. Current helicopters that are cleared to land on the frigate are the AS565 MA Panther, the SA321G Super Frelon and the NH 90. Landing or taking off can be accomplished through wave heights of up to Sea State 6.
The command data system is a THALES TAVITAC 2000 used by the ship's crew to communicate instructions to the on board systems. The 100mm main gun and the 20mm Oerlikon F2 guns firing system is the CTM supported by the Castor 2J radar, the latter a laser rangefinder and infrared tracking system with a designation sight. The 100mm main gun fires a 13.5kg shell out to a range of 16km with a rate-of-fire of 80 rounds per minute. The 20mm F2 cannons fire at a rate of 720 rounds per minute up to a range of 10km.
Searching the surface of the ocean and the air above is conducted by state-of-the-art sensors. The Sea Tiger MK2 radar IDS is designed for scanning at high altitudes and can train in on incoming sea-skimming anti-ship missiles out to 100 km. The ship's main weapon systems, however, are the two missile launchers set to fire the surface-directed Exocet anti-ship missile and the Aster 15 anti-aircraft missile.
The ship has a crew of 12 officers, 68 Petty officers and 61 Sailors. She stores a 50-day food supply for the crew along with 60 tons of drinking water. Two ENT boats are onboard and one serves as the captain's launch.
DNC builds an anti-submarine version of the La Fayette-class for Taiwan (the Kang Ding) and an anti-aircraft ship for Saudi Arabia (F3000S). Singapore ordered six "Project Delta" stealth frigates, these also based on the La Fayette. The first, the RSS Formidable, was built in France and was launched sometime in 2004. The other five ships have been christened the RSS Intrepid, RSS Steadfast, RSS Tenacious, RSS Stalwart and the RSS Supreme. These are being constructed in Singapore by the Technologies Marine Corporation.
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