‘Gowind’ ocean patrol vessel
THE SEA, OUR PLANET’S FUTURE French naval shipbuilder DCNS believes that the sea is this planet’s future. The company is inventing high-tech solutions to sustainably secure and develop its potential.
T
he sea always seems to have been a source of power. To confirm this postulate scientifically, DCNS has launched the Océanides project whose purpose is to study, on the five continents and over a period of five millenniums, the relationship there is between maritime power and geopolitical and economic power. More than 300 research workers from all parts of the world will make their contribution to a project which has had no equivalent since the French encyclopaedia venture which dates back to the eighteenth century. This project is part of DCNS’ ‘Vision for the Future’, which encompasses its ambition to achieve world leadership in its core areas of expertise, specifically naval 14 Industry Europe
defence, energy (civil nuclear engineering and marine renewable energy), along with the survey and sustainable development of the oceans’ potential. A further aim is to achieve long-term balance between DCNS’ main business activities, specifically domestic naval defence, international naval defence and ‘new markets’. Introducing the strategy, Patrick Boissier, chairman and CEO of DCNS, explained his own vision of the potential of the world’s oceans. “In 1960, one year before Yuri Gagarin opened the way to space exploration by man, Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh were the first explorers to reach the bottom of the ocean on board their bathyscaphe Trieste.
9000 metres down, the pressure cracked an 18cm thick perspex pane on their boat. This did not discourage them from pursuing their odyssey down to nearly 11,000 metres. 52 years later, James Cameron is only the third man to reach those depths. It is fitting to pay homage to those pioneers in the field of ocean depths exploration. “The fascinating adventure of the Canadian film director down in the Mariana trench reminds us that we know little about ocean depths. The sense of proximity that we harbour towards the sea is misleading. The ocean depths are so little known that James Cameron, back from his dive at the deepest place on earth, said he had had the impression of visiting another planet. One of the great-
