OCCAR Director has signed today the FREMM Research & Technology Projects Contract with NAVIRIS, a 50% joint venture by Fincantieri and Naval Group, officially launched in January 2020, with the aim to strengthen the French – Italian cooperation for the shipbuilding industry and Navies as an evolution of an historical partnership .

As a first step in this new framework, the two Nations have committed themselves in the field of five common Research and Technology (R&T) projects, object of the contract signed today. The national naval procurement bodies, SEGREDIFESA NAVARM and DGA/DO, in the wake of the existing synergies acquired with the FREMM programme, confirmed their intent to assign these activities to OCCAR through the FREMM Programme Division in Paris. The scope of the PD has thus been  enlarged and this Contract will be followed soon by a second one concerning preliminary studies for Horizon Mid-Life Upgrade.

This R&T programme aims at delivering new capabilities, innovative tools and architectures for the Italian and French Navies and comprises five different projects as follows:
1) Fuel Cell System (FCS) Project aimed at the development of a modular Fuel Cell System (FCS) suitable for marine applications;
2) Digital Ship Project for the development of warship simulation capabilities throughout its lifecycle in order to allow improving product reliability through ship simulation;
3) Energy Consumption Optimisation Project for the study of new architectures and equipment in order to improve the global efficiency of the electrical network and monitoring electrical consumption on board surface vessels;
4) The Logistic of the Future Project will focus on providing innovative technologies to the traditional supply chain, to obtain advantages during the full product life cycle in the Naval Vessels domain.
5) Winning a Sea State Project aimed at the development of innovative tools, methods and engineering solutions for surface ships to better perform in higher sea state.

The signature of this contract represents a particular success for OCCAR, the Participating States and their industries, since it represents the first Project in the R&D environment integrated in OCCAR and it also witnesses the capability of the Organisation to manage collaborative defence Programmes throughout their entire life cycle following OCCAR’s Through Life Management approach. Moreover, it is the first contract signed by NAVIRIS, that will be followed by other activities, thus increasing the number of common contracts managed by Italy and France in a fully cooperative approach.

The OCCAR-EA Director, Mr Matteo Bisceglia has stated ” I would like to thank France and Italy for their continued trust in the Organisation. I am sure that this contract with NAVIRIS is the first step of a long lasting successful cooperation.”

Fully committed to the achievement of this result, OCCAR Central Office and FREMM PD Staff have worked in close cooperation with NAVIRIS succeeding despite the very challenging working environment due to COVID 19 pandemic constraint. For this reason, this contract, negotiated for the most part during the lockdown period, represents also the determination of OCCAR, the Participating States and their Industries to start again, stronger than ever … OCCAR delivers!