DCN, LORIENT, France: The Chevalier Paul, the second of two Horizon anti-air warfare (AAW) frigates for the French Navy, was ceremonially launched at DCN's Lorient shipyard on Wednesday 12 July 2006.
The event was organised jointly by DCN and Horizon SAS. In addition to representatives of the main Horizon partners, the guests of honour included Laurent Giovachini, deputy director of French defence procurement agency DGA and director of weapon systems. The launch marks an important milestone in this Franco-Italian naval cooperation programme.
The DGA and NAVARM, the Horizon customers and contracting principals, appointed Horizon SAS, a joint subsidiary of Armaris and Orizzonte Sistemi Navali, as the overall programme prime contractor. Armaris is a DCN/Thales joint venture and Orizzonte a Fincantieri/Finmeccanica joint venture.
Horizon frigates are designed to control the airspace over theatres of operations, provide anti-air cover for carrier groups and convoys and participate in public service missions.
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The Horizon Common New Generation Frigate (CNGF) is a multi-national collaboration to produce a new generation of anti-air warfare frigates. Originally an alliance of Britain, France and Italy, the project is now a French/Italian effort following the withdrawal of Britain due to differing requirements. It is named Orizzonte in Italian and Horizon in French.
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As overall programme prime contractor, the Horizon SAS consortium awarded the design and shipbuilding contracts to DCN in France and Fincantieri in Italy. It then awarded the combat system prime contract to EuroSysnav, an Armaris/Finmeccanica joint venture drawing on the industrial resources of DCN, Finmeccanica and Thales.
The Horizon programme calls for the design and construction of four new-generation AAW frigates
