Itaguaí Construções Navais celebrates ten years in PROSUB advances

Next step will be the integration of the Humaitá submarine

Itaguaí Construções Navais, responsible for executing the Brazilian Navy Submarine Development Program – PROSUB – celebrates its tenth anniversary. This date marks a decade since the ICN’s bylaws were signed, which is comprised by partners: Naval Group and OEC (Odebrecht Engenharia e Construção). The celebration took place at the shipyard’s facilities located in Itaguaí (RJ), with the presence of two thousand members, in addition to representatives of the Brazilian Navy and ICN.

PROSUB plans to simultaneously manufacture four conventional submarines, the world’s state-of-the-art submarines in this category, and the first nuclear-powered submarine in Latin America, which will bring Brazil to the group of the six countries to have this technology. In October, the second conventional submarine, the Humaitá, will be integrated. In December 2018, the first submarine of the program, the Riachuelo, was launched at sea, and the equipment commissioning tests began.

On today’s solemnity, ICN’s president, André Portalis, emphasized that the great merit of these ten years of work was the company’s technical qualification and continuous evolution, and the support received from the Brazilian Navy:

– We are proud of the success achieved, especially, with the integration of teams with the technology transfer program and the permanent encouragement received from the Brazilian Navy, of which we are an industrial tool and our reason

to exist. Since 2013, our project reached several important milestones, when we started operating at UFEM (Metallic Structures Manufacturing Unit) plant until the launching of the Riachuelo submarine at the end of 2018.

UFEM is the manufacturing complex, with 45 buildings and 57 thousand square meters, built to house the PROSUB’s submarine components manufacturing plant. In addition to the administrative area, UFEM is also composed of a main building, with several workshops and warehouse. The Unit opened in March 2013.

Pedro Moreira, the engineer and contract director of the Shipyard and Naval Base (EBN), space of ICN complex where the submarines are built, and representative of OEC, recalled that ICN became a hub for technological development in the country.

– Our members developed technical skills that were not available. This is one of PROSUB’s great merits for the economic development of Brazil, and reaffirms the enormous capacity of the national engineering.

The Counter Admiral, Celso Koga, manager of the General Coordination of the Development Program of Nuclear Propulsion Submarine, recalled the great challenges they had ten years ago:

– Creating ICN, a private company, to build our submarines was not a simple project. But the company proved to be resilient, and trained their workforce in the most different areas. We are on the right track to achieve our highest goal, which is the construction of Álvaro Alberto, the first Brazilian nuclear-powered submarine.

During the ceremony, the counter admiral Paulo Demby, head of Institutional Relations and Communication of the General Nuclear and Technological Board of the Navy, recalled that, in addition to being strategic for the country, PROSUB stimulated the development of the entire southern region of Rio de Janeiro, where ICN is located.

– A notoriously deteriorated region of Sepetiba Bay has been transformed into a modern shipyard, with state-of-the-art spaces in the world’s naval industry, such as the simulator and the ship lift (submarine launch pad).

Technology transfer

The PROSUB generated the development of the entire production chain in the country, from the military technology transfer program between France and Brazil, helping to boost the naval defense industry, train the national labor market and generate thousands of jobs with high technical expertise. More than 100 national companies act as technology and products suppliers for the development of submarines and construction sites. About 90% of all the equipment used in the Naval Base Shipyard is acquired from companies located in Brazil. The works, under the OEC’s responsibility, also stimulated the development of new equipment, custom made to the challenge proposed by the program.

OEC IN PROSUB:

OEC’s (Odebrecht Engenharia e Construção) activities in PROSUB are also related to the construction of the Shipyard and Naval Base, where the company is responsible for three work fronts:

– Metallic Structures Manufacturing Unit (UFEM): industrial complex with 45 buildings and 57 thousand square meters, dedicated to the manufacture of PROSUB submarine components. In addition to the administrative area, UFEM is also composed of a main building with several workshops and warehouse. The Unit opened in March 2013.

– North Area: location of the pre-molded and tubular piles plant, where the Shipyard and the Naval Base are being built. It will also house a radioactive decontamination center, an internal circulation bus terminal, an environmental monitoring laboratory, administrative offices and a Nuclear, Bacteriological, Chemical and Radiological Defense Battalion.

– South Area: site place of implementation of the Construction and Maintenance Shipyards, the radiological complex and the Naval Base.