The 14,335-ton (submerged displacement) Le Temeaire, second of a planned quartet of nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines for the French Navy, was commissioned on 23 December 1999 to replace the 19-year-old Le Tonnant, which was retired last September. The class-name boat, Le Triomphant, entered service in September 1996, and the third sister, Le Vigilant, is to launch in March 2002 and commission in 2004. The as-yet unordered fourth unit is to enter service in 2008 to complete the replacement of the 8,913-ton Le Redoutable-class strategic missile submarines. The Le Triomphant and Le Temeraire each carry 16 three-stage M45 ballistic missiles, each missile with six TN-75 independently targeted warheads and a nominal range of 5,000 km. The unnamed fourth unit will be the first to carry the M51 missile, with a range of 7,000 km and 10-12 warheads, and the M51 eventually will be backfitted into the earlier boats. The 453-foot Le Triomphants have two crews of 15 officers and 96 enlisted personnel each and can attain more than 25 knots submerged, employing a single 150-- megawatt pressurized water reactor and steam turbines providing 41,500 shaft horsepower to a pumpjet propulsor.
The Royal Malaysian Navy frigate Lekiu was commissioned on 7 October 1999 in the United Kingdom, before departing for home waters. The second ship of the class, the Jabat, followed the Lekiu into service on 18 November. The pair had been ordered from the then-GEC-Yarrow Shipyard (now part of the Marconi Marine division of British Aerospace) in Scotland in March 1992 for completion in February and May 1996, respectively, but to the considerable embarrassment of the builders and the British naval systems industry, weapon system integration problems delayed their delivery for more than three years. The pair, Malaysia's largest and most complex combatants, are armed with eight French MM 40 Exocet antiship missiles, 16 vertically launched British Sea Wolf surface-- to-air missiles, a Swedish Bofors 57-mm dual-purpose gun, two British 30-mm guns, and two triple torpedo tube sets for British Stingray antisubmarine torpedoes. They have British-, Swedish-, and Dutch-made radars and a French sonar and each will carry one of the six Super Lynx 300 helicopters ordered in September 1999 from Westland. The 346-foot overall, diesel-powered pair can reach 28.5 knots, have crews of 19 officers and 127 enlisted personnel, and have a range of 5,000 nm at 14 knots.
One of a quartet of 1,168-ton (full load displacement) torpedo trials tenders ordered in 1987-1988 for use by the Naval Underwater Warfare Systems Engineering Station, Keyport, Washington, the Cape Flattery (YTT-9) was completed in November 1991. She is seen here moored with stricken Knox (FF-1052)-class frigates at Bremerton, Washington, where she has been in storage since deactivation in October 1996. The Cape Flattery and sister Agate Pass (YTT-12)—which never entered active service after completion in October 1992—were stricken from the Naval Vessel Registry on 13 August 1999. Sister Discovery Bay (YTT-11), although delivered in May 1992, did not become operational until 14 April 1994 and recently was reassigned as a carrier of remotely operated underwater vehicles in support of the five-year joint National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/National Geographic Sustainable Sea Expedition study of U.S. coastal waters. This leaves only the Battle Point (YTT-10) to conduct torpedo trials.