The A69 type D'Estienne d'Orves class are small warships mainly designed for coastal anti-submarine defence, but are also available for high sea escort missions.

Built on a simple and robust design, they have an economical and reliable propulsion system which allows them to be used for overseas presence missions.

The A69 design was based on the project of the João Coutinho class corvettes of the Portuguese Navy.

Only 80 metres in length and displacing 1,250 tons, these are not large ships but are nevertheless seaworthy and economical vessels. Armament and combat systems vary, and there were even plans - subsequently cancelled - to outfit two of them with helicopter landing facilities.

A total of 17 ships of this class were built and named after the heroes of the Second World War. Eight of these ships have since been decommissioned and six of them were sold to the Turkish Navy where they were redesignated as the B Class corvette.

Crew comprises 85 ratings and 7 officers and has a top speed of 24 knots and a range of 8,000 km at 15 knots. They are armed with four Aerospatiale MM 40 Exocet anti- ship missiles; one DCN 100 mm/55 Mod 68 CADAM automatic dual-purpose gun; two Oerlikon 20 mm anti-aircraft guns; four fixed torpedo tubes taking the ECAN L3 anti-submarine torpedo; one Creusot Loire 375 mm Mk 54 6-tubed trainable anti-ship mortar launcher.