DCNS: Swell measurement campaign completed

September 27, 2011 defpro.com

Paris | DCNS has completed the sea swell field measurement campaign stipulated as part of the study contract on swell lull period prediction techniques. DCNS has been awarded this study by The Direction Générale de l’Armement (DGA). Intended to secure the use of air or sea vehicles at sea, this study is part of a European Defence Agency project in which France, Spain, Italy and Finland are participating.

This study, carried out together with Sirehna and lasting 15 months, is part of a development intended to predict the movements of a ship several minutes in advance, in order to define the optimum moment for carrying out a tricky operation. This knowledge will be particularly useful for deck landings by aircraft, helicopters or UAVs, launch and recovery of surface boats or USVs, and embarkation of amphibious vehicles.

The measurements were made off the Talut signal station at Belle-Île (Morbihan). A sea wave radar and wave measurement buoys were used to record the sea state over many hours. A French Navy ship (the Tigre), equipped for the occasion by the DGA with an inertial unit, sailed near the buoys in order to correlate ship movements with swell measurements.

The DGA Hydrodynamic Techniques centre (formerly Hull Test Basin), second French partner in the EDA (European Defence Agency) project alongside DCNS, contributed substantially to this study for the organization of the tests, the measurements at sea and the processing of the measurements. This DGA technical centre also commissioned and managed various services provided by the French Navy and the CETMEF (maritime and fluvial technical study centre) of the Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development, Transport and Housing.