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2022-10-01

Enthusiasm Builds Up for Euronaval 2022

After a fully digital edition in 2020, Euronaval will be back in on-site physical format at Paris-Le Bourget from October

18 to 21, and the prospect has sparked tremendous enthusiasm, with several exhibitors already confirming their participation.

By: Sakha Pramod

Euronaval is organised by SOGENA (Naval Events Organisation and Management Company), a subsidiary of the GICAN – French Marine Industry Group.
A major component of the Marine Industrial Sector, the GICAN brings together more than nearly 260 companies in the naval industry: shipyards, systems, integrators, equipment manufacturers, design offices and engineering and service companies, which work in the design, manufacture, maintenance, modernisation, the dismantling and the deconstruction of ships, submarines, drones, aeromaritime means, renewable marine energies and everything related to the exploration and development of the oceans.

The event is also supported by the Armament General Directorate (DGA). Since its creation in 1961 by General de Gaulle, the DGA has conducted on average more than 100 arms programmes per year. These cover a full range of equipment at the highest technological level that enable the French armed forces to perform their missions.

With 18 sites in France and 10,118 men and women in a civilian and military workforce, including almost 60 per cent managers, engineers and experts, as well as its international personnel network, the DGA takes part in every domain of defence (land, naval and air combat, electronic communication and information systems, deterrence, space, cybersecurity, robotics etc.)

As Hugues d’Argentré, Managing Director of SOGENA, pointed out: “Trade shows have been unable to take place for too many months. They are a key link of the global economy, promoting discussion, meetings and international trade agreements.

The sense of excitement is already palpable, among exhibitors and our visitors alike, at the idea of getting back together in person in Paris-le Bourget, from 18 to 21 October 2022.”

Euronaval 2022 is shaping up to be the flagship event for naval technologies of the future.

Three Conferences

This year, with the return of exhibitors and visitors, Euronaval continues to evolve and develop its format. Three conferences dedicated to the geostrategic and technical issues of the naval sector will be held prior to the exhibition.

The events, organised in partnership with renowned think-tanks, will be held on the three Mondays preceding the opening of the exhibition (3rd, 10th and 17th October). High-level French and foreign speakers will debate and discuss the launch of the 28th edition of the mega event.

Speakers from the political, military and industrial worlds will discuss the major issues of naval defence and maritime security.

SEAnnovation

Created in 2018, SEAnnovation was one of the great successes of Euronaval 2018. SEAnnovation aims to host and promote French and foreign startups in a dedicated space animated by round tables, keynotes and pitches over the four days. The aim is to cover all areas of naval defence expertise.

Thirty-six startups have been selected this year, to exhibit under privileged conditions. For the selected startups, this offers an opportunity to get to know the naval industry’s prime contractors, to meet naval officers and decision-makers from all over the world.

18 pitch sessions will be held each day, i.e. 2 pitches per startup over the four days of the exhibition; 129 official delegations from 64 countries are expected to be present, besides 25,000 professional visitors.

Bookstore Area

For the first time, Euronaval is setting up a bookstore area dedicated to the maritime world. Authors, dedications and speeches will animate this new original space.

Exhibitor Highlights

Here’s a glimpse of prominent exhibitors/products one could expect at Euronaval 2022:

Airbus’ Smart Solutions

Airbus will be showcasing a myriad of smart solutions for safer oceans at this year’s Euronaval.

Designed to operate alongside other shipborne naval assets, Airbus’ VSR700 unmanned aerial system (UAS) currently under development will provide commanders with a much larger and clearer tactical picture, greater search and rescue power, and bring to bear a highly capable autonomous platform in times of heightened threats.

Its compact size and discreet silhouette enhance stealth, and its payload accommodates a host of several long-range, high-performance sensors — the optimal capability enhancement for modern navies.

After the launch of the SDAM programme for the French Navy in early 2018, VSR700 underwent an initial series of tests, trying the aircraft’s basic functions thanks to a contract placed by DGA (Direction générale de l’armement). It has since seen numerous advancements.

Another Airbus highlight at the event will be the first of a new generation of helicopter, the H160M. It derives from the EASA-certified H160. It benefits from a low cost of operations and optimised flight safety. The H160M incorporates the latest technological achievements in French aeronautics.

To ensure a high level of availability while reducing operating costs, the H160M’s support and services needs were taken into account from early in its design phase. The H160M’s support is based on the exploitation of data through analytics. It can be integrated into a secured digital support environment.

Aliaca Onboard Mini-UAV

Survey Copter, a subsidiary of Airbus, is planning to present Aliaca, an onboard mini-UAV system chosen by the French Navy and the DGA for the SMDM contract — for Systèmes de Mini Drones aériens embarqués de la Marine — as named by the French authorities.

This UAV system has been certified and qualified by the DGA (Direction Générale de l’Armement) in July. This means that it can be used and operated by the French Navy on a permanent basis.

The Aliaca UAS is an electrically-powered tactical mini-UAS that can discreetly collect original image information and transmit it in real time to its ground control station.

Etienne Lacroix

Etienne Lacroix Group, founded in 1848, is a pyrotechnics company in the fields of defence, security and entertainment.

Lacroix will be presenting at Euronaval the Sylena Decoy Launching Systems with new Electro Optic masking module, Seaclad new generation of ammunition (RF, IR, CNR, ASM), Submarine launched smoke & flares signal devices, airborne countermeasures for embedded aircraft, helicopters and distress signals for crews.

Lacroix has acquired expertise in decoy systems and pyrotechnic components, and offers a wide range of products for the protection of the main warships: patrol boats, frigates and destroyers.

In addition to its current range of decoy launchers (SYLENA LW, MK1 and MK2), LACROIX will unveil the SEAMOSC module on its Euronaval stand. It is designed to counter visible range or laser guided threats, by deploying a smoke screen specifically for naval use.

Lacroix is also still working on an OBAD concept (Off Board Active Decoy), a jammer embedded on a UAV.

Following a call for projects from the Defense Innovation Agency, for which a Lacroix proposal was selected, its teams are working on a technology for the implementation of an active offset decoy (jammer embedded on a UAV). This project, named VESTA (Véhicule Ejecté Support Tactique d’Autoprotection), unveiled during Euronaval online 2020, has been conducted in a collaborative approach that integrates state actors (AID, DGA EMM), and several civilian or defence industrialists of the European Defence Technological and Industrial Base.

Lacroix provides a complete range of MTV / Spectral / Kinematic decoys enabling armed forces to carry out low-level air operations too.

DCI Group

DCI group is the operator of the Ministry for the Armed Forces for the transfer of French armed forces’ know-how to international partners.

The DCI School of Saint-Mandrier (EDSMD), located within the French Navy’s Pôle Ecole Méditerranée, delivers operational and technical training courses in the surface, submarine and naval air domains.

NAVFCO, the naval branch of DCI, transfers the know-how of the French Navy to naval forces of partner countries and proposes innovative solutions in France and overseas.

This year, DCI Group’s training wing will be highlighting Almak, a modern 44-metre multipurpose ship designed to deliver practical maritime training (navigation) and operational training (special forces, diving, use of maritime UAVs). Almak is based at Concarneau (Brittany) and has sailed since 2013. It hosts up to 16 cadets and instructors and can be deployed for up to 40 weeks a year for navigation periods from a few hours to several days.

Almak intends to address other state and private markets needs for naval training and support missions: maritime surveillance, maritime adversary force, scientific activities, experimentation of equipment, etc. In 2022, DCI Group won two new calls for tenders to provide the Almak to the French and Belgian naval academies. The French Navy will charter the Almak for the benefits of its Naval Academy for the next seven years during peaks of activities in navigation and manoeuvre training.

DCI Group also provides UAVs for different operational missions that can be conducted for state or military actors. It is used, for instance, in land or maritime surveillance (ISR) or search and rescue (SAR) missions using all sizes and configurations of UAVs (fixed or rotary wings, or hybrid).

Atechsys UAV LYNX is particularly adapted to the different maritime missions due to its vertical takeoff and landing capability, its maximum speed of 120 km/hr to rapidly join its zone of action and its autonomy of 1 to 3 hours on the zone. With a payload of 3 to 8 kg, it can carry a day/night optronic pod (EO/IR) for maritime surveillance missions.

ECA Group

The ECA Group offers innovative solutions at sea, on land, and in the air.

Since 1936, ECA Group’s passionate personnel have been designing, building, and supporting robotic systems that detect danger, protect people, and secure infrastructure in the entire world.

The Group has decades-long expertise in high performance AUVs, with references including top-tier navies worldwide. Recent developments have led to the release of the A18D mid-size autonomous system, going down to 3000m. ECA Group AUVs demonstrate the best balance of compactness, endurance, performance, modularity, innovation, and competitiveness.

The Group went further than the 3000m, and keeping the seabed exploration in mind, it has developed the Ulyx AUV, in partnership with Ifremer. Ulyx is a high-technology AUV that can operate at 6,000m depth and offers long endurance surveys and unique low altitude hovering capabilities.

iXblue Solutions

Euronaval exhibitor iXblue’s in-house expertise includes advanced systems and solutions devoted to inertial navigation, subsea positioning, underwater imaging, as well as uncrewed Surface Vessels.

Recognised for its work on Fiber-Optic Gyroscopes (FOG) that have revolutionised naval navigation over the past 30 years, iXblue provides safe navigation to over 40 navies worldwide. The company’s critical navigation sensors and solutions include inertial navigation systems (INS), underwater acoustic positioning systems, mine and obstacle avoidance sonars, Navigation Data Distribution & Computation Systems (NDDCS), as well as navigation software (WECDIS).

iXblue develops its own Uncrewed Surface Vehicle (USV): DriX. Already deployed by major companies and hydrography administrations worldwide, DriX is able to conduct both remote controlled and supervised autonomous operations (within visual range or Over the Horizon) and offers outstanding seakeeping and speed capabilities. Fitted with an advanced collision avoidance system that combines all data collected by its embarked navigation sensors, DriX offers high security at sea, even within restricted areas.

MBDA’s Integrated Defence

With a significant presence in five European countries and within the U.S., in 2021 MBDA achieved revenue of 4.2 billion euro with an order book of 17.8 billion euro. MBDA is jointly owned by Airbus (37.5%), BAE Systems (37.5%), and Leonardo (25%). MBDA is closely associated with Exocet, probably one of the world’s most famous anti-ship missile systems. However, this is only one of a number of ship, fixed and rotary wing aircraft launched anti-ship missiles that MBDA supplies to the modern navy.

MBDA will exhibit at Euronaval the VL MICA/VL MICA NG naval air defence system that provides self and local area defence capability. It is currently deployed by navies around the world as the sole or main air defence system on board a wide range of surface vessels.

The system deploys the unique MICA missile which is equipped with two, interoperable, state-of-the-art seekers (Imaging IR or active RF), providing superior features to counter all types of threat (anti-ship missiles, aircraft, helicopters, PGMs, smart bombs, etc).

Operated from the ship combat system using existing air defence sensors, VL MICA/VL MICA NG has no need for a dedicated fire control system.

The Exocet missiles’ family comprises a range of easy to use, standoff ‘fire and forget’ stealthy missiles with skimming flight for engaging high value naval targets with the flexibility to be fired from all maritime platforms — surface ships (MM40), submarines (SM39), fixed wing aircraft, helicopters (AM39) and coastal batteries.

MBDA will also showcase Sea Venom/ANL — its new generation medium range anti-ship missile developed for shipborne helicopters, Mistral Simbad-RC — an anti-air self defence system operating the effective fire-and-forget Mistral 3 missile, and the ITR product line developed to improve the reconfiguration of firing installations onboard ships. The ITR fits all MBDA firing installations.

Naval Group

Naval Group’s Belharra is an innovative combat ship, designed for crisis management as well as naval supremacy in high intensity conflict. This compact frigate is capable of performing a comprehensive spectrum of missions, alone or as part of a naval force, for long-duration missions on the high seas as well as for littoral operations in a crowded and contested operational environment.

As the first digital frigate, Belharra has high-level capabilities in anti-air, anti-surface, anti-submarine and asymmetric warfare, considering the French Navy’s operational heritage acquired in operations. Gowind is Naval Group’s response to 21st century security and defence challenges.

It is a corvette-size multi-mission Surface Combatant offering capabilities in all areas. Gowind integrates, through Naval Group’s SETIS Combat Management System and innovative structural solutions, the latest generation sensors and weapons. Designed to be used against air, naval or underwater threats from the initial steps of the engineering process, Gowind is multipurpose by design.

Naval Group also designs and develops naval drone systems for surface (Inspear, Remorina, L-USV), submarine (D2i, DSMO) and air applications (SDAM). The group designs and develops drone capabilities including drone projection ships for mine warfare, antisubmarine warfare, as well as technological bricks (I4drones Mission System, energy, data links).

Suffren Submarines

The Suffren nuclear attack submarines (SSN) built under the Barracuda programme are designed to ensure France’s naval power. The French Navy’s new nuclear attack submarine is polyvalent, mobile, hardy and can be deployed quickly. Its missions cover all fields of combat, support to deterrence, deep strikes, wide area surveillance, deployment with a naval air force, cooperation within coalitions or special forces. While the ship is the focus of Naval Group’s attention, its internationalisation strategy has boosted another of its activities: infrastructure.

Safran Electronics & Defense

Safran Electronics & Defense will present VIGY 4, the newest member of the VIGY family. Developed and produced by Safran Electronics & Defense, VIGY 4, integrates advanced observation and fire director capabilities to meet the needs of medium tonnage vessels. VIGY 4 is a panoramic and multi-sensor stabilised shipborne electro optical system.

Modular and easy to install, it features an HD cooled thermal channel and a HD day channel both with a continuous zoom, a laser rangefinder, an optional SWIR channel and an automatic video tracking.

Present on the French submarine programmes as well as on the export submarines built by Naval Group, and on the Swedish and South-Korean national programmes (A26 and KSS3), Safran Electronics & Defense was selected in 2022 as “preferred supplier” for the non-penetrating search optronic masts for the Australian Navy’s Collins class submarines. Its products are used on more than 1,000 surface vessels and submarines deployed by 50 navies worldwide.

Another highlight at Safran stand will be its Patroller UAS. It is designed to carry out intelligence, surveillance and targeting missions. It can be deployed for external operations as well as homeland security and maritime surveillance missions. For maritime surveillance, the Patroller is fitted with a multimode surveillance radar, enabling long-range detection of maritime activity over a large zone.

Thales Hightech Solutions

Thales provides naval forces with front edge operational systems and associated services they need to face every challenges of seabed, littoral safety and security.

Thales’ Sea Fire is the latest-generation solid-state modular multifunction radar, with a four-panel AESA (Active Electronically Scanned Array) antenna, simultaneously performing long range air and surface surveillance, as well as missile guidance, to protect frigates from all types of threats in complex environments.

This digital radar is at the forefront of technological innovation and benefits from all Thales’s Big Data and cybersecurity expertise. Through its advanced radar software, the digital nature of the Sea Fire made possible the implementation of a high fidelity digital twin.

The digital twin of the Sea Fire truly reproduces the radars’ behaviour and performance. It supports radar development throughout the product life cycle from initial development to in-service support, operation and upgrades.

Thales’ digital frigate is equipped with the complete Thales sonar suite comprising the Kingklip MK2 hull mounted sonar and the Captas-4 Compact towed-array sonar.

More than 80 CAPTAS systems have been chosen by 19 navies across the world. It’s operational at sea since 2002 and is on-board more than 20 ship classes including FREMM, FDI, Gowind class, T23, T26, F110, FFG62 Constellation Class, Fridtjof Nansen-class Norwegian frigates, and Sigma Class.

CAPTAS-4 is the proven at sea variable depth sonar for task group level missions, such as theatre operations and power projection.

French frigates FREMM, equipped with this sonar, won, in 2020 and 2021, the prestigious “Hook’em Award” awarded by the U.S. Navy in recognition of the best anti-submarine warfare units.

Meeting Place of Naval World

Like the last 50 years, all the naval defence industrialists and major decision-makers and commanders of military and state navies will meet at Euronaval to exchange ideas, discover the latest innovations and prepare the future of their navies. Euronaval is the major meeting place for all countries.

All the above-mentioned highlights are sure to make Euronaval 2022 a resounding success.

Reference Text/Photo:

www.euronaval.fr

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