French destroyer Chevalier Paul is in Malta for a three day visit.

The state-of-the-art vessel owes its name to French navy legend Jean-Paul de Saumeur, who was also a Knight of the Order of Malta. Saumeur was such a successful mariner that in 1659 he was made Commander of the Order.

The vessel itself is part of the Horizon programme, a trilateral programme between France, the UK and later Italy for air defence. This then became a Franco-Italian programme and contributed to the development and the construction of the Chevalier Paul and the Forbin as well as the Italian Andrea Doria and Caio Duilio.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.