The ship's specialty is air traffic control in a war zone, but it can be employed in a wide variety of missions, such as intelligence-gathering, special forces operations, or in protecting less well-armed vessels.

A main anti-air missile system (PAAMS), combined with an EMPAR multifunction radar operating in C-band, controls launch and target tracking.

The French Navy has shown with the frigate Forbin its capacity to destroy a supersonic missile ( 3,000 km / h ) maneuvering ( SS-N-22, AS-17, BrahMos ) and at an altitude of less than 5 meters above water by shooting down a GQM-163 Coyote.

[9] Two turrets with fully automated OTO-Melara 76 mm cannon, controlled from Central Operations, with a rate of fire of 60 to 120 rounds per minute.

[14] It made its first long-term crossing from 18 March 2010, which ended in mid-July/[15] Chevalier Paul sailed to the North Sea and briefly participated in the NATO exercise Brillant Mariner (12 to 22 April 2011), which also involves the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle and Mistral.

[12][16] Chevalier Paul was admitted to active service on 10 June 2011, when the ship was engaged three days later in Operation Harmattan, the French contribution to the 2011 military intervention in Libya.

Some reports claimed she had been deployed to the eastern Mediterranean in response to the Syrian Civil War,[18] but the navy authorities declined to confirm she was heading for Syria.

[21] The ship was a component of the Charles de Gaulle Carrier Strike Group, which left Toulon on 13 January for a mission of approximately five months and engaged for eight weeks in the Persian Gulf.

[22] On 18 November 2015, Charles de Gaulle set sail and joined its carrier strike group, of which Chevalier Paul is a member.

[25] During the COVID-19 pandemic, on 15 April 2020, the Ministry of Armed Forces reported that, out of the 1,767 tests conducted on the members of the carrier battle group led by Charles de Gaulle, 668 returned positive.

[33][34][35] Parly further explained that the introduction of the virus on board the carrier happened sometime between when it left Limassol, Cyprus, on 26 February 2020, and when it arrived at Brest on 13 March.

[33] Parly also noted that all soldiers aboard Charles de Gaulle have since recovered from the disease except for one sailor, who was still hospitalized after leaving the ICU.

On 22 August, the frigate evacuated and assisted the crew of the Greek tanker Sounion,[36] previously attacked by two Houti arrmed boats off Yemen and disabled.