Australian marine technology firm AMOG Ventures has formed a Melbourne-based joint venture with French naval technology specialist ECA Group to pursue the SEA 1350 contract from the Royal Australian Navy.
Victorian Minister for Jobs, Innovation and Trade Martin Pakula, as well as the French government’s Direction Générale de l’Armement (DGA) representative General Yannick Cailliez, witnessed the birth of the new 50:50 company, Advanced Magnetic Ranges Australia (AMRA), with a signing of a preliminary memorandum of understanding (MoU) at the Euronaval 2018 show in Paris.
AMRA confirmed it will bid for the forthcoming Project SEA 1350, which is worth up to $100 million and will see RAN's existing and new submarines, as well as surface ships, "undergo a vital pre-deployment process called deperming, which reduces or eliminates the magnetism of a steel hull and so aids its stealth, preventing it triggering magnetic mines or attracting certain types of torpedo".
"It is great to see Victorian-based company AMOG Ventures joining forces with French company ECA GROUP to establish this new joint-venture, which we are delighted will be based here in Victoria," said Minister Pakula.
"Advanced Magnetic Ranges Australia will leverage the cutting-edge capability of Victoria’s defence supply chain to bid for projects such as the Australian Defence Force’s SEA 1350 Magnetic Treatment Facility. This is a great collaborative model that will help set them apart from competitors as they bid for future domestic and global maritime projects.”
If successful in winning the contract, AMRA said it would install the deperming system at Fleet Base West, near Perth.
“Our innovative solution to the continuous challenge of deperming is based on a tried, tested and approved method of demagnetising ships and submarines,” said Phillippe Novelli, chief commercial officer of ECA Group.
“An important portfolio of military service expertise will be transferred from France to Australia. Today, ECA Group is a leading designer, manufacturer and operator of equipment for the submarine and sub-surface technology markets. Our proven and innovative ‘over-run’ solution can save the Commonwealth a great deal of time and money while keeping their military capacity, ships and crews safe. This know-how will become an Australian competency which could be exported to other countries.”
The system proposed by AMRA simplifies the laborious process of the deperming, with the company saying it would reduce the time required from 10 days to just one.
A traditional deperming process sees the entire body of a ship or submarine wrapped in a massive wire coil, which has electricity passed through it to reduce the magnetic ‘signature’ of the vessel.
AMRA's approach uses wire coils laid down on the sea bed through which a specific current form is passed as the vessel moves over the coils. This ‘over-run’ process takes less than one day and "therefore provides a significant operational advantage when compared to the traditional wrapping, which can take up to 10 days".
