Complexo Naval de Itaguai
Sepetiba Bay shipyard and naval base
On 12 December 2014, the President of the Brazilian Republic, Dilma Rousseff, officially inaugurated the main hall of the submarine construction shipyard, located in Itaguaí in the Bay of Sepetiba. This industrial facility brings together specific resources and tools for the assembly and equipping of Scorpene submarine sections in the frame of the Brazilian Navy submarine program. The ceremony took place in the presence of the Brazilian President, Dilma Rousseff, the Brazilian Defence Minister, Celso Amorim, Admiral Julio Soares de Moura Neto of the Brazilian Navy, high representatives and the CEOs of DCNS and Odebrecht, Hervé Guillou and Marcelo Odebrecht.
The project began with the signing of a strategic cooperation agreement between France and Brazil in 2008, followed, in 2010, by a series of contracts worth almost €7 billion, between Naval Group (known until June 2017 as DCNS) and its Brazilian partner Odebrecht. The responsibilities of DCNS for the construction of this shipyard covered the design, the definition of the functional specifications, technical support for the construction of the shipyard and naval base, worksite management and the reception of the installations and industrial equipment. The complex incorporates the one and only major existing facility in the vicinity, namely the state-owned Nuclep heavy engineering plant that produced the pressure hulls for the Navy’s German-designed Type 209 submarines built under a technology transfer program and commissioned between 1994 and 2005. With the exception of the Nuclep plant, the rest of the complex had to be designed and built from scratch.
The inauguration of this new building marked an important milestone for the program and illustrated the success of the partnership with Brazil. The function of the shipyard is to assemble the submarine sections built in the Metal Assembly Production Unit by Itaguai Construções Navais (Joint-venture between Odebrecht and DCNS) and integrate equipment and systems. The inauguration related to the main building, the shipyard’s largest installation. When it becomes operational, its dimensions and industrial facilities will allow the simultaneous construction of two submarines, thus confirming its large industrial capacity. Like the Lauboeuf hall at Naval Group’s Cherbourg shipyard, the ESC hall has a Syncrolift shiplift to launch and recover submarines. Rated at 8000t, the Syncrolift is sized to accommodate Brazil’s planned nuclear-powered attack submarines, or SSNs, which will be significantly larger than the S-BR type.
Hervé Guillou explained: “The achievement of this milestone demonstrates that Brazil possesses cutting-edge industrial infrastructures allowing it to strengthen the capacities of its Navy. DCNS is proud to work alongside the Brazilian Navy to ensure the success of this vast technology-transfer programme.”
The four Scorpene-type conventional S-BR submarines respond to the specific requirements of the Brazilian Navy. They are perfectly suited to the protection and defence needs of Brazil’s 8,500 kilometres of coastline. The Scorpene submarines are versatile ocean-going submarines designed for all types of missions, including surface-vessel warfare, anti-submarine warfare, special operations and intelligence gathering.
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