Speaking at the Paris Naval Conference 2025, the Chief of the French Navy, Admiral Nicolas Vaujour, stated that the Navy has succeeded in increasing the availability of the main strike units to 80% and the presence of the French Fleet in the seas around the world. The approach adopted by the French Navy is twofold: Providing double crews for many of the main strike units and improving the procedures and support times of the ships. “Availability is one of my motivations because I have by law – the French military planning law – 15 destroyers and frigates. So, the way to have more ships is not to build one more, because it has been politically decided that I have 15. The question for me is to increase the level of availability of the ships. “We are currently achieving more or less 80% availability for these ships, which is really high in terms of maintenance. How we used this 80% in the best way was to double the crews for some ships, not only to increase the minimum number of days at sea, but also to double the days at sea. I have more than 15 ships, because of the double crews, with maximum availability of ships. So we are trying to meet the need for more ships at sea and fewer ships on land,” said the French Admiral. The 15 main strike units of the French Navy include two anti-aircraft frigates of the “Horizon” class (destroyer referred to by the French), eight FREMM-class frigates of the “Aquitaine” class and five “La Fayette” class frigates, three of which are upgraded, while in total they will be replaced by five FDI-class frigates of the “Amiral Ronarc’h” class.
