French Navy orders third projection and command vessel

As part of the French Government’s recovery plan for the global economic crisis, STX France and DCNS have been awarded a contract to build a third projection and command vessel (BPC) for the French Navy.

Work on the third BPC was launched last week on April 16 in Saint-Nazaire by Hervé Morin, the Defence Minister, and Patrick Devedjian, the minister in charge of implementing the recovery plan.Due to the tight economic constraints, the ship will be built solely at the STX Europe Saint-Nazaire site, as the sharing of the construction of the platform between two production sites would have generated additional costs, making it impossible to meet the government’s budget.STX France, in charge of the overall coordination of the project for the industrial part, will build the whole of the propelled platform, including fitting out the equipment onboard. Once trials are completed, BPC 3 will move to Toulon. DCNS will manufacture and integrate the combat system, which includes communications, navigation and combat management systems.

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