BSM Loire

Laid down on 09 July 1965, the Loire was put on the water on 01 October 1966 and admitted to active service on 17 October 1967. It was the fifth and last in a series of vessels originally intended for the logistical support of a naval force. As such, the main mission of the Loire was always able to support and command a deployed Land Warfare Force, and maintain the ships that make up the base port.

To achieve this mission, the Loire featured specialized workshops that allow it to act as the complex electronic equipment used by hunters tripartite mines type Eridanus as their shell combined fiberglass and once on hunters Of the type Circé, not forgetting the set of installations common to all types of buildings that appreciate the skills of the general mechanical workshops, boiler making, weapons ...

During forty years of service, the Loire was been deployed on almost all seas of the Arctic Ocean, to ensure police Grande Fishing on the banks of Newfoundland, in the Indian Ocean where it supported [twice] the demining of the Suez Canal and two more times that of the Persian Gulf. The atypical history of the Loire will always be associated with the names of constellations, those of the minesweepers and mine hunters of which it has always been the Mother Ship.

The Loire had as its godmother Saint-Etienne in the Loire. The Loire is set aside on 7 September 2009. Its definitive withdrawal from active service takes place on 24 October 2009. By decision of November 30, 2009, the Loire is condemned and its hull, destined for the deconstruction, takes the name of Q853.