On 7 October 2021, Naval Group brings together its customers, industry and academic partners for the fifth edition of the Naval Innovation Days in Issy-les-Moulineaux. On this occasion, Naval Group presents several innovation programs designed to ensure the naval superiority of today’s and tomorrow’s navies.
Pierre Eric Pommellet, CEO of Naval Group said: “The Naval Innovation Days are an essential element in preparing the naval industry of tomorrow, in partnership with R&D players and our customers. This scientific and industrial co-innovation allows us to capture the best of innovation to face the acceleration of both the paces of innovation and of threats. We are constantly innovating at all stages of a ship’s life, from design to maintenance. We are driven by a single ambition: to contribute to the operational superiority of naval forces by guaranteeing information superiority, commitment and the ability to last at sea.”
The Naval Innovation Days are dedicated to the naval technologies of tomorrow to prepare the future of naval defence. As the pace of innovation accelerates each year, Naval Group focuses on an open innovation dynamic. The Group’s objectives are to strengthen openness and exchange between several ecosystems, to integrate real advances on board ships more quickly and sustainably, and to provide a real capability advantage in the theatre of operations, as proposed by the new Defence and Intervention frigate.
Naval Group relies on new technologies (digitalisation, artificial intelligence, augmented reality) to reinvent the design, construction and maintenance of ships, in order to provide its customers with the scientific, technological and industrial capabilities they need to support their sovereignty in the long term. The Naval Innovation Days illustrate and promote the work carried out together with the Group’s partners and customers. Continuity and constant improvement of current programs address the need for incremental innovation while the new projects selected address the need for technological breakthroughs.
Five innovation projects were selected to illustrate this day:
- An oceanic underwater drone demonstrator
The underwater threat is becoming a major issue for the navies in the near future. The Oceanic Underwater Drone Demonstrator is a project that federates technological developments. One of the main challenges is controlled decision-making autonomy, which will be at the heart of the drone capabilities. This demonstrator will enable the design, qualification and validation of technological building blocks. This workshop presented at the Naval innovation days highlights the opportunities for agile development, together with the French authorities and our partners, to provide advanced systems dedicated to tomorrow’s underwater warfare.
- Physical integration of UAVs
The physical integration of a drone, whether airborne, surface or underwater, with a ship is a particularly extensive process that calls on all of Naval Group’s skills. Drones are an essential component of the future collaborative warfare as they offer a new way out of isolation thanks to the exchange of information collected in real time between ships. As an integral part of the ship, the drone becomes a vital organ and an extension of the ship’s field of action.
- Manoeuvring assistance under multiple threats
Drawing on its knowledge of underwater warfare systems, Naval Group has developed in collaboration with Flinders University in Australia a decision support tool, which offers the commander a safe route without being detected. It is the result of technical and scientific innovations in the fields of digital systems and naval acoustics.
- Performance of composite solutions
Advances in joining and multi-functional materials have made it possible to design large, fixed and moving parts. Composites, which are light, strong, corrosion resistant, fireproof and able to take any shape, are now a serious alternative to steel and metal alloys. Naval Group and its partners are able to propose new architectural solutions capable of improving the overall performance of its ships and submarines.
- Cyber security risk management
Because cyber threats can compromise a ship’s mission, keeping it in a safe condition is vital.
Naval Group is developing solutions to give the crew a global vision of the cyber risk, through dynamic risk management that identifies in real time the most critical systems to be updated.
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