The Commandant Rivière class was a type of frigates built for the French Navy in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Labeled "aviso-escorteur" (fr: "sloop-escort"), they were designed to perform the role of overseas patrol in peacetime and Anti-Submarine escort in wartime.
Four similar ships were built for the Portuguese Navy as the João Belo class frigate. The ships had accommodation for an 80-man commando detachment with two fast landing boats, each capable of landing 25 men.
All French units were decommissioned in the mid-1990s, save for three frigates that were sold to the Uruguayan Navy.
| General characteristics | |
|---|---|
| Type: | frigate |
| Displacement: | 1,750 tons standard, 2,230 tons full load |
| Length: | 98 m |
| Beam: | 11.5 m |
| Draught: | 4.3 m |
| Propulsion: | 2 shaft diesel 16,000 hp |
| Speed: | 25 knots |
| Range: | 7500 nmi at 16 knots |
| Boats and landing craft carried: | LCPS boats |
| Complement: | 9 officers 67 non-commissioned officers 93 Quarter-masters and sailors |
| Sensors and processing systems: | DRBV22A sentry radar |
| Electronic warfare and decoys: | ARBR10 radar detector |
| Armament: | 3 x 100 mm guns (3x1) - one gun later replaced by 4 MM38 Exocet Missiles |
