AMOG, ECA Group form French-Australian JV
ECA Group and AMOG Ventures have established a joint venture (JV) to pursue a Royal Australian Navy (RAN) contract worth up to $100 million, the company announced on 2 April.
The new 50:50 JV will be called Advanced Magnetic Ranges Australia Pty Limited (AMRA) and will be based in Melbourne.
The new company will bid for the RAN’s Project SEA 1350, to develop a new Magnetic Treatment facility for the navy. The facility will enable Australia’s existing and new submarines and surface ships to undergo a vital pre-deployment process called deperming. The process aims to reduce or eliminate the magnetism of a steel hull and so aids its stealth, preventing it triggering magnetic mines or attracting certain types of torpedo. All warships and submarines are required to undergo this process periodically.
The traditional deperming process sees the entire body of a ship or submarine wrapped in a massive wire coil. Electricity is then passed through the coil to reduce the magnetic signature of the vessel - a process that can take up to ten days. The AMRA 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.
The over-run treatment range can be combined with the RAN’s existing multi-influence range that is designed to detect and measure a variety of other signatures including acoustic, magnetic, electric, and pressure.
Project SEA 1350 intends to replace an existing deperming facility used by the RAN; if successful, AMRA will install the new deperming system at Fleet Base West in Garden Island, Australia.
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