Naval Group

Naval Group

offshore engineering, nuclear engineering marine renewable energies
Revenue	€4.007 billion[1] (2022)
Operating income	€542.9 million[1] (2022)
Net income	€327.8 million[1] (2022)
Total assets	€6.711 billion[1] (2022)
Total equity	€1.598 billion[1] (2022)
Owner	French state: 62.49% Thales: 35% Company & employees: 2.51%
Number of employees	14,182[1] (2022)
Subsidiaries	Naval Energies, Sirehna, Kership
Website	www.naval-group.com

Naval Group is a major French industrial

Heir to the French naval dockyards initiated in 1631 by Cardinal Richelieu and to the Direction des Constructions et Armes Navales (DCAN), which became Direction des Constructions Navales (DCN) in 1991 and then DCNS in 2007, the company was rebranded Naval Group in 2017. Its two main shareholders are the French State (62.25%) and Thales Group (35%).^[1]

Naval Group employs 14,182 people^[1] across 18 countries.

History

Naval Group has a heritage of almost 400 years. Major shipyards were built in France in Brest (1631), Nantes-Indret (1771), Lorient (1778) and, subsequently, Cherbourg (1813). Others were to follow. As early as 1926, what we know as the Naval Group today already had all the facilities now owned by the group in mainland France.

The birth of the naval dockyards

In 1624, Cardinal Richelieu, who was King

The policy was continued by Colbert, Louis XIV's Navy Minister, who developed several major dockyards. He extended the dockyards in Toulon, ordered the excavation of the docks in Brest and founded the Rochefort dockyards. His son, Seignelay, who succeeded him in 1683, followed in his footsteps.^[3]

The French Royal Navy's network of dockyards was further strengthened in the 18th century. In 1750, the Marquis de Montalembert converted a former paper mill into a forge producing cannons at Ruelle-sur-Touvre. In 1777, Antoine de Sartine, Louis XVI's Navy Minister, opened a cannon foundry near the naval shipyards in Indret. In the same year, work started on the development of the port in Cherbourg, which was completed in 1813. In 1778, the Lorient naval dockyards succeeded La Compagnie des Indes du port de L’Orient.^[4]

The naval dockyards in Rochefort were closed in 1926. In 1937, the establishment in Saint-Tropez was opened on the former site of the company Schneider, which specialised in torpedoes. By this time, most of the Naval Group's French sites already existed, and they have not changed since then.

Industrialisation and technical innovations

During the 19th century, the naval dockyards underwent a transformation as the fleet of sailing ships and were replaced by motorised vessels. The sites were industrialised and gradually specialised. In 1865, the naval dockyards in Brest became exclusively military, with the closure of the

This rationalisation of the roles of the naval dockyards was accompanied by technical and military innovations and the production of vessels at a higher pace, against the backdrop of an arms race and colonisation. In 1858, Gloire, the first ocean-going battleship in the world sailed out of the dockyards in Toulon. The 1860s saw the arrival of the first torpedo boats and military submarines, with the launch of Plongeur in 1863. The technical problems experienced by this first-ever motorised submarine meant that it remained a prototype rather than an operational war vessel. But it did open the way for the construction of Gymnote in 1886 and Le Narval in 1899, which were the first operational torpedo submarines in history.

The production of heavy surface vessels was also stepped up in the 1910s. Several battleships were built before the start of the

Until 1961, the French navy maintained and repaired its fleet itself, through the Directions des Constructions et Armes Navales (DCAN) in the naval dockyards. The engineers working in the DCANs were officers in the French navy's engineering division. At this time, the dockyards broke away from the Navy, creating the opportunity for the diversification of their activities in the 1970s.

A single DCAN covered all the mainland and overseas naval dockyards, reporting to the Direction Technique des Constructions Navales (DTCN). In turn, the DTCN was answerable to the Délégation Ministérielle pour l’Armement (DMA), set up by Michel Debré. In 1977, la DMA became the Délégation Générale de l’Armement (DGA). The purpose of this reform was to centralise all the armed forces' design and construction capacities in a single inter-armed forces delegation operating under the government's authority.^[6]

In 1958, the official launch by

The Cœlacanthe project brought together the DTCN and the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, and in 1971, Redoutable, the first French missile-launching nuclear submarine, came into service.

Transformation into a company

The international economic climate and decolonisation in the 1970s lead the DCAN to venture into new markets. The loss of the overseas naval dockyards was compounded by the French Navy's reduced need for vessels and the increased difficulty in obtaining funding. This trend gathered more pace after the end of the Cold War, despite the diversification of the DCAN activities, which now included maintaining the electric power network and clearing mines from the coastline. Some sites also specialised in civilian projects: Brest built trucks, Guérigny made agricultural machinery and Toulon produced civilian vessels (yachts, liners).

But, looking beyond the order books, it was the public status of the DCAN that was gradually called into question, and it came to be considered as an administrative obstacle to the development of the potential of France's naval dockyards.

This transformation occurred in several stages. In 1991, the DCAN was christened the DCN (Direction des Construction Navales). In the same year, DCN International was created. The mission of this PLC was to promote the activities of the DCN on an international scale and to facilitate the export of its products.

In 1992, the DCN's activities for the state were attached to the Naval Programmes department (SPN), which was the contracting authority for vessels for the French navy. Since then, the DCN has only been responsible for industrial activities, while remaining part of the DGA. This change of status has allowed DCN International to provide the DCN with commercial and legal support in the development of its international trade since the end of the 1990s.

The development strategy pursued by DCN International resulted in the signing of several major contracts. In 1994, three Agosta-class submarines were delivered to Pakistan, and, in 1997, two Scorpène-class submarines were built for Chile. A contract was also won in 2000 to supply six Formidable-class frigates to Singapore. In 2007, a contract was signed with Malaysia for two Scorpène submarines, through the subsidiary Armaris.^[7]

The DCN has also won contracts in the field of off-shore drilling for oil. In 1997, the Brest site modernised the Sedco 707 platform and now builds SFX type oil rigs.^[8]

In 1999, the DCN became an agency with national authority (SCN), reporting directly to the Ministry of Defence. Finally, in 2001, the French government decided to transform the DCN into a fully state-owned private limited company. The change of status came into effect in 2003. The DCN became just DCN, which no longer stood for Direction des Constructions Navales.

The development and continuation of the DCNS group

In 2007, DCN acquired the French naval activities branch of Thales, Armaris, a former subsidiary that was equally shared between DCN and Thales, and MOPA2, the company in charge of the project to build a second aircraft carrier. To stress its new identity, the resulting group was named DCNS. Thales acquired a 25% stake in the group's capital. In 2011, Thales increased its share of DCNS' capital to 35%.^[9]

Construction of the stealthy multi-function frigates (

• Aircraft carriers: French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle
• Helicopter carriers: Mistral-class LHD
• Multi-mission frigates:
  Frégate de défense et d'intervention-class frigates (planned);^[10] La Fayette-class frigate
• Multi-mission frigates: Design of
  Gowind-class corvette
• Air defence frigates: Horizon-class frigates
• Medium-tonnage vessels:
  Gowind-class corvettes
• Construction of aerial drones for the navy

Submarines and underwater weapons

• Conventional submarines: Scorpène class, Andrasta class and Attack class
• Nuclear submarines: ballistic missile nuclear submarines Triomphant class and Redoutable class
• Nuclear submarines: nuclear attack submarines
  Barracuda class
• Hybrid concepts: the company's Sous-Marin Experimental (SMX) series explores advanced concepts for submarine warfare.^[11] One in the series—the SMX-25—was designed to arrive in theatre rapidly through high surface speed and then operate as normal underwater.^[12][13]
• Suffren class: Nuclear submarines: nuclear attack submarines Rubis class and Barracuda class : Barracuda (class Suffren)
• F21 heavy-weight torpedoes
• MU90 light-weight torpedoes

Energy and marine infrastructures

The group collaborates with

Naval Group was investing in four renewable marine technologies: wave energy, marine current turbines, ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC), and floating wind turbines. Naval created Naval Energies in 2017. Since it gained control of the Irish company OpenHydro in 2013, Naval Group has been able to progress from the research and development phase to industrial production.^[15] In 2021, Naval Group stopped the Naval Energies activities.

Corporate responsibility

Naval Group operates several programmes to promote training and professional integration. The group has signed the Pacte PME, which fosters relations between large companies and smaller enterprises and sets up partnerships with leading universities and academic institutions. Between 2006 and 2013, DCNS organised the Trophée Poséidon for students in engineering schools, which rewarded student projects in the fields of innovation and the maritime environment.

Between 2008 and 2014, Naval Group also ran a professional integration programme for both persons with technical qualifications and persons without any qualifications, called the Filières du Talent. In 2010, this programme was rewarded by the Trophée national 2010 de l’entreprise citoyenne.^[16]

DCNS has also been involved in the world of yachting for many years by sharing its technologies and through its sponsoring and mentoring activities. The group is a partner of the Grand-Prix de l'

In 2008, DCNS built the single-hull DCNS 1000, a yacht designed for round-the-world races, which featured in the 2013 film En Solitaire, by Christophe Offenstein, starring François Cluzet.

Today, Naval Group also shared its technical expertise in composites for hulls and in navigation systems by building the experimental trimaran L'

in 2007. The Naval Group industrial site in Toulon has been a partner of

Toulon rugby club since 2005.^[19]

Organisation

Naval Group is a private limited company in which the

shares. At the end of 2016, Naval Group employed 12,771 people, more than half of whom are private sector workers, while the other half are public sector

workers. The group is present in 18 countries and has entered several partnerships outside France through its subsidiaries and joint ventures.

Governance

• Chairman and CEO: Pierre Eric Pommellet
• Senior Executive Vice President, Development: Alain Guillou
• Senior Executive Vice President, Finance, Legal & Purchasing: Frank Le Rebeller

Financial data

	2012	2013	2019[20]	2020[21]	2021[22]	2022[1]
Turnover (billion €)	3.36	2.93	3.6	3.3	4.0	4.0
Firm orders (billion €)	2.53	2.27	5.3	3.4	3.0	5.6
Order book (billion €)	14.46	13.22	15.01	15.2	14.0	15.3
Operating profit (million €)	208.5	166.4	261.6	3.3	232.7	96.8
Net profit (million €)	163.7	104.1	145.2	-56.3	192.5	327.8

Sites

In France

Naval Group operates 10 sites in France. Each site is specialised in a particular activity.

• Bagneux: information and surveillance systems
• Brest: services, operational readiness of vessels and submarines, maintenance of the Navy's industrial port infrastructures, renewable marine energies. The site is located in the Brest dockyards, on the Froutven zone and on the Île Longue. It is a stakeholder in Pôle Mer Bretagne.
• Cherbourg: production of submarines
• Toulon-Ollioules: information and surveillance systems
• Lorient: surface naval defence systems
• Nantes-Indret and Technocampus Ocean: submarines, research and development, nuclear propulsion. Co-founder of the
  EMC
  centre of excellence
• Paris: head office of the group
• Ruelle-sur-Touvre: submarines, automated systems, simulators, training
• Saint-Tropez: underwater weapons (torpedoes)
• Toulon: services, maintenance of submarines and the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier

Worldwide

Naval Group owns representative offices in Australia, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Chile, the United Arab Emirates, Greece, India, Indonesia, Malaysia. The group is also represented all over the world by its subsidiaries and joint ventures, which are wholly owned or operated in association with other companies.^[23]

Europe-Middle East

• France:
  • Sirehna, a 100% owned subsidiary: naval hydrodynamics, navigation solutions for ships and landing solutions for marine, land or aerial vehicles and drones
  • Défense Environnement Services, a 49%-owned subsidiary, in partnership with Veolia Environnement: multi-service infrastructures^{[clarification needed]}
  • Kership, a 45%-owned partnership, with Piriou: medium-tonnage vessels for the French state
• The Netherlands:
  • Naval Group BV Den Haag, Naval Group Far East is a wholly owned subsidiary of Naval Group.
• Belgium:
  • Naval Group Belgium is a wholly owned subsidiary of Naval Group.
• Ireland:
  • OpenHydro, a 62% owned subsidiary of Naval Energies: marine current turbines^{[clarification needed]}
• Saudi Arabia:
  • Naval Group Support, a 100% owned subsidiary: assistance for the Naval Group group's operational readiness missions^{[clarification needed]}

Africa

• Egypt: Naval Group Alexandria is a wholly owned subsidiary of Naval Group.

Asia-Pacific

• India:
  • Naval Group India, a 100% owned subsidiary: support for technical and research activities in the local naval shipyards
• Malaysia:
  • Naval Group Malaysia, a 100% owned subsidiary: assistance for the Naval Group in its local activities
  • Boustead Naval Group Naval Company, a 40% owned subsidiary, in partnership with Boustead: operational readiness of submarines
• Singapore:
  • Naval Group Far East, a 100% owned subsidiary: logistics and maintenance for naval and air and sea systems
• Australia
  • Naval Group Australia, a 100% owned subsidiary: awarded SEA1000 contract in 2016 as DCNS Australia by the
    Australian Government. Responsible for the design of twelve future submarines for the Royal Australian Navy.^[24] The contract was cancelled in September 2021.^[25]

Americas

• Brazil:
  • Naval Group do Brasil, a 100% owned subsidiary: the group's sales office in Brazil
  • Prosin, a 100% owned subsidiary of Naval Group do Brasil: The responsibility for naval systems engineering in Brazil
  • Brazilian Government: construction of submarines as part of the contract signed by DCNS with the Brazilian Navy
    .
• Canada:
  • Naval Group Technologies Canada Inc, a 100% owned subsidiary: the group's sales office in Canada

Controversies

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in French. (January 2015) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the French article. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing French Wikipedia article at [[:fr:Affaire des frégates de Taïwan]]; see its history for attribution. You should also add the template {{Translated|fr|Affaire des frégates de Taïwan}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

The DCN / DCNS plays a major role in "one of France's biggest political and financial scandals of the last generation [that left] a trail of eight unexplained deaths, nearly half a billion dollars in missing cash and troubling allegations of government complicity" connected to a sale of warships to Taiwan in the 1990s.^[26]

Apart from the issues surrounding the sale of ships to Taiwan mentioned above, French prosecutors started investigating a wide range of corruption charges in 2010 involving different submarine sales, with possible bribery and kickbacks to top officials in France. In particular interest by the prosecutors are sales of Scorpène-class submarines to countries like India and Malaysia.

Suaram as it involved Prime Minister Najib Razak when he was defence minister and his friend Abdul Razak Baginda^[28] whose company Primekar was alleged to be paid a huge commission during the purchase of two Scorpène submarines.^[29] French investigators are interested in the fact that Primekar was formed only a few months before the contract was signed with the Malaysian government and DCNS and that Primekar had no track record in servicing submarines and did not have the financial capability to support the contract.^[30] Investigations have also revealed that a Hong Kong-based company called Terasasi Ltd in which the directors are Razak Baginda and his father, sold classified Malaysian navy defence documents to DCNS.^[31] Also under scrutiny are allegations of extortion and the murder of Shaariibuugiin Altantuyaa, a translator who worked on the deal.^[32]

On 15 December 2015, French courts indicted Bernard Baiocco, former president of Thales International Asia for paying kickbacks to Abdul Razak Baginda. At the same time director of shipbuilder DCN International was indicted for misuse of corporate assets.[33]^[34][35][36]

On 24 August 2016, it was reported by the newspaper The Australian that a 22,000-page report leak has taken place regarding the unrelated Scorpène-class submarine currently being built by India as a part of a 3.5 billion dollar deal. The suspected leak of sensitive information for the Scorpène was claimed to contain information regarding stealth, sensors, the noise level of the submarine at different sea depths, acoustic information and more.^[37] The Indian Navy passed the blame for the data leak onto unnamed overseas sources, possibly from the hacking of sensitive data.^[38] Naval Group filed a complaint against the newspaper with the Supreme Court of the State of New South Wales in Australia for having illegally published documents containing old technical information about the Scorpene. The Australian court ruled in favour of Naval Group on 29 August and confirmed its decision on 1 September.^[39]

See also

• Murder of Shaariibuugiin Altantuyaa

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i} "Financial report 2022". Naval Group. Retrieved 9 December 2023.
2. ^ "ASNOM - Association Amicale Santé Navale et d'Outre Mer". Retrieved 27 April 2016.
3. ^ - Extension on the French dockyards^{[permanent dead link]}
4. ^ John Pike. "French Shipbuilding Industry". Retrieved 27 April 2016.
5. ^ Decree of 22 avril 1927 on the Navy's organization, Journal Officiel de la République Française, 1927
6. ^ Yves FREVILLE, "La réorganisation du MCO et la création du service de soutien de la flotte", Information report by the French Senate n°426, 2005
7. ^ "France Submarine Import and Export Behavior - NTI". Retrieved 27 April 2016.
8. ^ - Global developments spur French contracting business, 1998
9. ^ "Defense & Security Intelligence & Analysis: IHS Jane's - IHS". Retrieved 27 April 2016.
10. ^ "Les frégates de défense et intervention (FDI)". https://defense.gouv.fr. 6 April 2019. Retrieved 12 July 2021. {{cite web}}: External link in |work= (help)
11. ^ Pike, John (5 April 2017). "SMX - Sous-Marine Experimental". GlobalSecurity.org. Retrieved 18 April 2017.
12. ^ Barreira, Victor M.S. (2011), "Developments in French Naval Industry", in Verma, Bharat (ed.), Indian Defense Review, Lancer, p. 188,
    ISBN 9788170621829
13. ^ Ryabov, Kirill (10 January 2012), "Французские корабли будущего: SMX-25 и ADVANSEA (French ships of the future: SMX-25 and ADVANSEA)", Армейский Вестник (Army Newsletter) (in Russian), archived from the original on 24 March 2013, retrieved 18 April 2017
14. ^ "Le réacteur sous-marin, nouveau fleuron de l'industrie nucléaire française? - LeMonde.fr". www.lemonde.fr. Archived from the original on 31 January 2011. Retrieved 22 May 2022.
15. ^ "DCNS prend le contrôle d'Openhydro". Mer et Marine (in French). 2013.
16. ^ "DCNS reçoit le Trophée National de l'Entreprise Citoyenne". Mer et Marine (in French). 6 December 2010. Retrieved 18 September 2014.
17. ^ "Partners". GPEN. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 18 September 2014.
18. ^ "l'Hydroptère DCNS Hydrofoil Sailboat". Ship Technology (in French). Retrieved 18 September 2014.
19. ^ "Partenariat DCNS". RC Toulon (in French). Archived from the original on 24 September 2014. Retrieved 18 September 2014.
20. ^ "Financial report 2019". Naval Group. Retrieved 9 December 2023.
21. ^ "Financial report 2020". Naval Group. Retrieved 9 December 2023.
22. ^ "Financial report 2021". Naval Group. Retrieved 9 December 2023.
23. ^ Astrid APERT. "DCNS". Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 27 April 2016.
24. ^ "History - DCNS Australia". DCNS Australia. Archived from the original on 4 December 2015. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
25. ^ Jennett, Greg; Evans, Jake (16 September 2021). "Australia to acquire nuclear submarine fleet as part of historic partnership with US and UK to counter China's influence". ABC News. Retrieved 17 September 2021.
26. ^ Schofield, Hugh (1 December 2003). "Book delves into frigate scandal". BBC News. Archived from the original on 14 July 2019. Retrieved 29 January 2015.
27. ^ "Asia Sentinel - Malaysia's Submarine Scandal Surfaces in France". Archived from the original on 6 July 2011. Retrieved 12 December 2011.
28. ^ "French legal team in Malaysia to probe sub deal". 28 April 2010. Archived from the original on 1 May 2010. The submarine deal was crafted during the tenure of the then-Defence Minister Najib Tun Razak, now prime minister, in 2002. As a result of the pact, RM3.7 billion in commission went to Najib's closest associate Abdul Razak Baginda.
29. ^ "France probes corruption in arms to Malaysia". Archived from the original on 14 August 2014. Retrieved 27 April 2016.
30. ^ Malaysians allege graft in French submarine deal - BusinessWeek
31. ^ "Thank You Malaysia". Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 27 April 2016.
32. ^ "French judges begins bribery probe". Vancouver Sun. 7 May 2012. Archived from the original on 13 May 2012.
33. ^ "Thank You Malaysia". Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 27 April 2016.
34. ^ "Scorpene scandal resurfaces, Suaram vindicated". Free Malaysia Today. 29 January 2016. Retrieved 27 April 2016.
35. ^ "France opens probe into 'bribery' of Malaysia's Najib Razak". Financial Times. 4 February 2016.
36. ^ "Contract-winning French sub builder DCNS tied up in deadly Malaysian bribery saga". The Sydney Morning Herald. 23 May 2016.
37. ^ "Over 20,000 pages of top-secret data about India's mega submarine project leaked, says The Australian". Quartz. 23 August 2016.
38. ^ "'A Case of Hacking': Parrikar on Indian Navy's Submarine Data Leak". 23 August 2016. Archived from the original on 26 August 2016. Retrieved 24 August 2016.
39. ISBN 978-2-36497-046-5.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link
    )

Further reading

• On the corruption scandal involving Taiwan: Jean-Pierre, Thierry (2003). Taïwan connection (in French).
  ISBN 978-2-221-10082-0
  .

External links

• Official website