Direction des Constructions Navales Services
The DCNS Group is a leading European player on the world market for integrated warships. In response to customer demands for more comprehensive and integrated systems, DCNS acts as prime contractor for naval shipbuilding, integration and support by combining its own development, marketing and production capabilities with those of selected partners. To manage the complexity of such projects, the Group draws on in-house expertise in naval architecture and systems engineering, ship assembly and integration and equipment design and production, as well as through-life support. The DCNS Group employs 13,000 people and generates annual revenues of around €3 billion.
French naval shipbuilder DCN (Direction des Constructions Navales) enjoys the status of a State-owned company governed by private law. Most of the fighting ships operated by the French Navy are designed, built, tested and maintained by DCN. Further every weapon carried by every warship in the French Navy was integrated by DCN. A total of six submarines of the Redoutable class were built at Cherbourg Naval Dockyard - part of the major French Naval builder DCN, from 1967 to 1982.
On 15 December 2005 French defence electronics group Thales and state-owned naval shipyards DCN linked up in a significant step towards consolidation of European naval defence industries. The agreement between the companies, creating one of the three biggest shipbuilders in Europe, had the strong support of French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie. Thales transfered to DCN its naval shipyard activities and its half of a joint venture between the two companies. In return, Thales took a 25-percent stake in DCN and make a cash payment of 100-150 million euros to the French state.
The DCNS Group is a front-ranking European player in the world market for naval defence systems. To meet customer demands for more comprehensive and integrated solutions, DCNS acts as prime contractor for naval shipbuilding and support by combining its own development, marketing and production capabilities with those of selected partners. To manage the complexity of naval shipbuilding projects, DCNS draws on its own in-house expertise in naval architecture, principal warship systems engineering, the management of ship assembly and integration, and equipment design naval bases and production as well as through-life support.
Cardinal Richelieu opened the first naval dockyards in 1631. In 2008, the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, was presented with the very latest in the line of nuclear-powered ballistic-missile submarines, Le Terrible. Since the early 17th century, the world of naval defense has achieved so many breakthroughs, driven in its onward march by a body of industrialists united by their passion for the sea and for high technology.
DCNS is one of this elite group, boasting more than 350 years of history. Major shipyards were built in France in Ruelle (1751), Nantes-Indret (1771), Lorient (1778) and, subsequently, in Cherbourg (1813). Others were to follow. As early as 1926, DCNS already had all the facilities now owned by the Group in mainland France.
Towards the end of the 20th century, the revolution in communication technology and the progress achieved in so many areas – materials, alloys, acoustics, design, etc. – provided the world of naval defense with opportunities that, until then, had seemed barely imaginable. DCNS.
In 2007, DCN and Thales joined forces within the Convergence project to create a major player in the world of naval defense. Boasting a larger Group structure and greater independence, the new entity – already in marching order and ready to develop its activities and conquer the world – formally changed its name to DCNS.
The Group’s 14 sites in France, deeply rooted in the local industrial fabric, contribute to the economic dynamism of the regions. DCNS is also asserting its presence in the international arena via a strategy based on setting up subsidiaries and offices to support the execution of naval defense programs. The Group is also giving itself the resources it needs to expand to other parts of the world, wherever its expertise can be put to good use. As in Athens, Greece, where DCNS is opening an office, and in Bombay, India, where the Group has created a subsidiary in 2007, thereby reinforcing DCNS’ international presence with facilities in Saudi Arabia, Bulgaria, Italy, Malaysia and Singapore.
DCNS is a public limited company (or société anonyme) governed by the provisions of the French Act of July 26, 1983 related to the democratization of public-sector companies as regards the rules governing the membership and working methods of its Board of Directors. The Board of Directors ensures that the Group is run properly and determines its strategy objectives. It protects the interests of the company’s principal stakeholders: the shareholders, employees and customers. A tightly structured senior management team with a new distribution of operating activities – 4 Divisions and 3 Business Units dedicated to equipment – supported by 3 cross-functional department and 10 functional departments. This operating structure allows the company to provide solutions closely matching the preoccupations of its current and prospective customers.
The Group’s international expansion in the naval defense sector will be pursued through the development of its activities in certain key countries, as was recently the case in India and Greece. International expansion will also be pursued though the launch of a new range of products designed to satisfy the new requirements of foreign navies. In the area of services, DCNS is widening the scope of its activities to include support for ships already sold, training, design of naval bases, etc.
Development in new markets is focused on energy (civil nuclear power and renewable marine energy solutions) and services. In the area of nuclear power, DCNS boasts a wealth of engineering and manufacturing resources developed for the nuclear powered propulsion systems developed for its ships: production, maintenance services, prime contractor services for major operations (new sub-assemblies or the modernization of components). In the area of renewable marine energy, DCNS can offer operators a range of reliable technological solutions and services.
