Europe is plagued by too many naval yards, French Navy chief says

PARIS — Europe has too many naval shipyards competing for business, and the industry needs to consolidate to a handful of players that can win export contracts, French Navy Chief of Staff Adm. Nicolas Vaujour said in a parliamentary hearing last week.

The Naviris joint venture between Italy’s Fincantieri and France’s Naval Group, created in 2020 and meant as a first step in wider European naval consolidation, “unfortunately didn‘t quite live up to expectations,” Vaujour told the National Assembly’s defense committee on Wednesday.

“Today in Europe, we have around 14 shipyards that are competing with each other pretty much everywhere,” Vaujour said. “In an ideal world, we would have three or four that challenge each other, but would above all be winning export market share abroad.”

Europe lacks a single naval strategy, with countries having their national strategies and struggling to converge, the French Navy commander said. With governments keen to safeguard regional industrial activity and economies, political initiatives are probably not the way to consolidating military shipbuilding, according to Vaujour.

“We have the political ambition to be more coherent, from an industrial point of view, and to divvy up the market a little, so to say,” Vaujour said. “But the reality is, we all agree here that if we must choose between Naval Group and Fincantieri, obviously it’s Naval Group. And when you’re in Italy, they of course say Fincantieri.”

France also wants to protect the smaller naval yards along its coast, such as Piriou, Socarenam and CMN, according to the admiral.

That means creating a naval equivalent of European aircraft maker Airbus would depend on the shipbuilding companies first and foremost, “that is, if they manage to merge,” Vaujour told lawmakers. “We didn‘t succeed with Fincantieri.”

When Naval and Fincantieri created Naviris, they said the joint venture would serve the French and Italian navies, but also pursue export opportunities outside Europe and be a leader in shipbuilding consolidation. While Naviris won part of a €1.5 billion contract to upgrade the French-Italian Horizon-class frigates in 2023, success in the latter two areas has been more elusive.

France and Italy have “very, very different” strategies for shipbuilding and vessel size, according to Vaujour. France has been moving towards smaller frigates, with the newest Frégate de Défense et d’Intervention, or FDI, displacing 4,500 metric tons, whereas Italy’s new PPA offshore patrol vessel displaces 7,000 tons and the DDX destroyer design is for 14,000 tons, Vaujour said.

“We consider that the size is a little too large,” Vaujour said. He said the FDI is drawing interest from European countries because the frigate is suitable for small navies, an accessible vessel that can be operated by a small crew. “So we have divergence in our vision of the vessel of the future.”

France and Italy also use different economic models, with the Italians buying “a lot of ships” for their navy that they can resell, allowing to rapidly fill potential export orders, according to Vaujour.

The French are in discussion with Naval Group about ordering a “blank hull” that would be either available for export, or join the French fleet ahead of schedule if there’s no buyer, Vaujour said. Naval Group currently has a minimum production rate of one FDI per year at its yard in Lorient, and says it can raise capacity to two per year, according to the admiral.

France has ordered five FDI frigates from Naval Group, with the lead vessel of the class Amiral Ronarc’h completing sea trails last month. The first of three FDI frigates for the Hellenic Navy, HS Kimon, started sea trails on May 21 in Lorient.

“The first thing partners interested in the FDI ask about is the lead time – how soon can you supply me with a frigate?” Vaujour said. “That’s the only question the Norwegians, Swedes, and Danes ask when they ask for the FDI: `When can you deliver?’”

Naval Group is convinced of the blank hull concept, while the Directorate General for Armament considers the model “really relevant,” Vaujour said. He said the idea of ordering an FDI hull without a guaranteed buyer does carry risk, and the Finance Ministry still requires convincing.

“The acceleration of new contracts, we have to be able to do that,” Vaujour said. “Lorient is capable of moving to two per year, and we can help with that.”

A recent partnership agreement between Naval Group and Norway’s Kongsberg should be seen in the context of a potential sale of frigates to the Royal Norwegian Navy, according to Vaujour. Norway is “quite interested” in the FDI, which is in competition with British, German and Italian designs, and should France win the deal, there will be work sharing with Kongsberg, Vaujour said.

Rudy Ruitenberg is a Europe correspondent for Defense News. He started his career at Bloomberg News and has experience reporting on technology, commodity markets and politics.

巴黎——法国海军参谋长尼古拉斯·沃茹尔海军上将在上周的议会听证会上表示，欧洲有太多海军造船厂在争夺业务，该行业需要整合为少数几家能够赢得出口合同的企业。

意大利芬坎蒂尼集团和法国海军集团于 2020 年成立的合资企业 Naviris，旨在作为更广泛的欧洲海军整合的第一步，但“不幸的是，它并没有完全达到预期”，沃茹尔周三在国民议会国防委员会上表示。

“如今在欧洲，大约有14家造船厂在几乎所有领域相互竞争，”沃茹尔说。“理想情况下，应该有三到四家造船厂相互竞争，但最重要的是，它们应该在海外出口市场份额上占据优势。”

法国海军司令表示，欧洲缺乏统一的海军战略，各国各自为政，难以达成共识。沃茹尔认为，鉴于各国政府都热衷于维护区域工业活动和经济，政治举措可能并非整合军用造船业的良方。

“从产业角度来看，我们有政治抱负，希望更加协调一致，并稍微分割一下市场，”沃茹尔说。“但现实是，我们所有人都同意，如果必须在海军集团和芬坎蒂尼集团之间做出选择，显然是海军集团。而在意大利，人们当然会说芬坎蒂尼集团。”

据这位海军上将称，法国还希望保护其沿海较小的海军造船厂，如皮里乌造船厂、索卡雷纳姆造船厂和CMN造船厂。

这意味着，要打造一家与欧洲飞机制造商空客齐名的海军企业，首先取决于造船公司，“也就是说，如果它们能够成功合并的话，”沃茹尔告诉议员们。“我们与芬坎蒂尼的合并就失败了。”

当法国海军集团（Naval）和芬坎蒂尼集团（Fincantieri）共同创建纳维里斯（Naviris）时，他们表示这家合资企业将服务于法国和意大利海军，同时寻求欧洲以外的出口机会，并成为造船业整合的领军企业。尽管纳维里斯在2023年赢得了价值15亿欧元的法意联合建造的“地平线”级护卫舰升级合同的一部分，但在后两个领域取得成功却并非易事。

沃茹尔表示，法国和意大利在造船和舰艇尺寸方面有着“截然不同”的战略。法国一直致力于建造小型护卫舰，最新的“防御与干预”号（FDI）排水量为4500吨；而意大利的新型PPA近海巡逻舰排水量为7000吨，DDX驱逐舰的设计排水量则为14000吨。

“我们认为它的尺寸有点太大了，”沃茹尔说。他表示，这艘护卫舰之所以吸引欧洲国家的关注，是因为它适合小型海军，易于操控，只需少量船员即可操作。“所以我们对未来舰艇的设想存在分歧。”

据沃茹尔称，法国和意大利也采用了不同的经济模式，意大利人为海军购买了“大量舰船”，然后可以转售，从而能够迅速满足潜在的出口订单。

沃茹尔表示，法国正在与法国海军集团商讨订购一艘“毛坯船体”，该船体要么用于出口，要么如果没有买家，则可提前加入法国海军舰队。这位海军上将还透露，法国海军集团目前在洛里昂的船厂每年最低生产一艘FDI级护卫舰，并表示可以将产能提高到每年两艘。

法国已向法国海军集团订购了五艘FDI型护卫舰，该级首舰“罗纳尔克海军上将”号已于上月完成海上试航。希腊海军订购的三艘FDI型护卫舰中的第一艘“基蒙”号于5月21日在洛里昂开始海上试航。

“对外国直接投资感兴趣的合作伙伴首先会问到交付周期——你们多久能给我交付一艘护卫舰？”沃茹尔说。“挪威人、瑞典人和丹麦人在寻求外国直接投资时，唯一会问的问题就是：‘你们什么时候能交付？’”

沃茹尔表示，法国海军集团对毛坯船体概念深信不疑，而军备总局也认为该模式“非常实用”。他指出，在没有买家保障的情况下订购外商直接投资船体确实存在风险，财政部仍需进一步说服。

“加快新合同签订速度，我们必须做到这一点，”沃茹尔说。“洛里昂有能力每年签订两份合同，我们可以提供帮助。”

据沃茹尔称，法国海军集团与挪威康士伯公司最近达成的合作协议，应放在法国可能向挪威皇家海军出售护卫舰的背景下看待。挪威对这项外国直接投资“非常感兴趣”，该投资正与英国、德国和意大利的设计方案展开竞争。沃茹尔表示，如果法国最终赢得合同，将与康士伯公司进行工作共享。

鲁迪·鲁伊滕贝格是《防务新闻》的欧洲记者。他的职业生涯始于彭博新闻社，拥有报道科技、大宗商品市场和政治方面的经验。