Franco-Italian Naviris Bags OCCAR R&T Contract, to Upgrade Horizon Frigates

Naviris, a 50/50 owned joint venture by Fincantieri and Naval Group has revealed it will undertake Mid-Life Upgrade of Horizon-class of air-defense destroyers.

The company revealed its plans on Thursday when it signed its first contract regarding Research and Technology (R&T) with OCCAR, the European Joint Armaments Cooperation organization.

“I am very proud of the kick off of Naviris activities. Thanks to France, Italy and OCCAR, our joint-venture is able to launch a very ambitious R&T program for the coming three and a half years. This R&T program is the first of many more to come. In addition to research projects, Naviris’ activities will soon encompass additional initiatives such as the Mid-Life Upgrade of the Horizon frigates,” said Pierre-Eric Pommellet, CEO of Naval Group.

The funds will be used for development work on computer-aided engineering, vessel lifecycle simulation, energy efficiency, fuel cells for surface vessels, logistics and new technologies for helping sail in rough weather.

Naviris, as prime contractor, will coordinate technical activities managed by Fincantieri and Naval Group and will own the intellectual property of all the research findings.

The R&T program is divided into five different projects:

• Digital ship- This project will develop warship simulation capabilities throughout the whole ship’s lifecycle in order to improve product performances assessment, while reducing the need of real testing, and optimize the use of Computer Aided Engineering to enhance both design definition (Hydrodynamics, Aerodynamics) and ship daily on-board operations (through the integrated approach of the Digital Twin Concept)
• Energy consumption optimization-This project will identify new architectures and equipment useful to improve the global efficiency of the electrical network and monitoring electrical consumption on board Surface Vessels;
• Fuel cells for surface vessels- This project will develop a modular Fuel Cell System (FCS) suitable for marine applications, capable of being fully integrated on board naval surface vessels;
• Logistics- This project will boost shipbuilding competitiveness by developing solutions able to increase production efficiency and effectiveness and to reduce costs during the entire product life cycle; providing new tools for inspection and maintenance purposes as well as on board management of components in a Naval Vessels working environment.
• This project aims at developing methods, tools and engineering solutions to allow naval surface vessels to safely carry out daily operations (like launch and recovery of units) in worse environmental conditions than currently met.