The Dupuy de Lôme (A759), named after the 19th century engineer Dupuy de Lôme

Dupuy de Lome

Dupuy de Lome may refer to:* Enrique Dupuy de Lôme, Spanish Minister to the United States in 1892* Henri Dupuy de Lôme, a French naval architect in the 19th century...

, is a ship designed for the collection of signals and communications beyond enemy lines, which entered the service of the French Navy

French Navy

The French Navy, officially the Marine nationale and often called La Royale is the maritime arm of the French military. It includes a full range of fighting vessels, from patrol boats to a nuclear powered aircraft carrier and 10 nuclear-powered submarines, four of which are capable of launching...

 in April 2006. In contrast to the Bougainville, the ship that she replaced, the Dupuy de Lôme was specifically designed for sea intelligence, pursuant to the MINREM project (Moyen Interarmées Naval de recherche ElectroMagnétique, "Joint Naval Resources for Electromagnetic Research").

Design

The Dupuy de Lôme was designed by Thales Naval France

Thales Group

The Thales Group is a French electronics company delivering information systems and services for the aerospace, defense, transportation and security markets...

 on civilian standards. She provides a 350-day-operational availability a year, out of which 240 can be spent at sea. The ship is operated by two Navy squads, each composed of 33 sailors and 33 technicians, and an optional complement of up to 38 specialists, depending on the mission. The specialised personnel operates under the Direction du renseignement militaire

Direction du renseignement militaire

The Direction du renseignement militaire is a French intelligence agency that has the task of collecting and centralizing information for the French Armed Forces. Created in 1992, its role is similar to that of the US DIA, the UK DIS or the Russian GRU...

.

Sources and references

• Dupuy de Lôme, Ministry of Defence
• Navire collecteur de renseignements Dupuy de Lôme, netmarine.net