On September 1, 2022, at the Brazilian shipbuilding company Itaguai Construçoes Navais (ICN) in Itaguai in the Gulf of Sepetiba near Rio de Janeiro, a ceremony was held for the commissioning of the Brazilian Navy of the S 40 Riachuelo, a modified French Scorpene project (Brazilian designation type SBR), built there. The boat was built according to the project and with the assistance of the French shipbuilding association Naval Group and became the first in a series of four units.
The ceremony of the entry into the Brazilian Navy of the head large diesel-electric submarine S 40 Riachuelo of the modified French project Scorpene, built at the Brazilian shipbuilding company Itaguai Construçoes Navais (ICN). Itaguay, 01.09.2022 (c) Agência Marinha de NotíciasRecall that the construction of four large SBR diesel-electric submarines of the enlarged modified Scorpene type for the Brazilian fleet under the Programa de Desenvolvimento de Submarinos (PROSUB) program is carried out in accordance with the agreement concluded on September 3, 2009 by the Brazilian Ministry of Defense with the French shipbuilding association DCNS (now Naval Goup), acting as the general contractor for the supply of Brazil the specified four diesel-electric and one nuclear submarine.
To implement this agreement, a new special Itaguai Construçoes Navais (ICN) submarine shipyard in Itaguai in the Gulf of Sepetiba was built in Brazil as part of a joint venture between DCNS (Naval Group, 41% share) and the Brazilian Odebrecht Group (59%).
The ICN shipyard should become a single complex not only for the construction, but also for the basing, maintenance and repair of Brazilian submarines of the new generation. Initially, the cost of creating the ICN complex was estimated at $ 1.8 billion, but apparently exceeded this amount.
ICN's main production facilities were officially opened on March 1, 2013, including the UFEM production complex consisting of 13 workshops with a total area of 57,000 sq. m. meters. The main workshop is a boathouse equipped with 16 overhead cranes and 8000-ton German presses. The production facilities should allow the shipyard to simultaneously build sections and structures of three diesel-electric and one nuclear submarine. The construction of diesel-electric boats is carried out by assembling each of the saturated hull sections manufactured at UFEM in the ICN boathouse on the territory of a new naval base built at the same time. In general, more than 2,000 people are employed at the ICN shipyard.
However, the PROSUB submarine construction program is chronically lagging behind. The lead submarine S 40 Riachuelo (SBR-1) was formally laid down at ICN on May 27, 2010 and was originally planned for delivery in 2016, however, only by the end of 2017 all five saturated sections were manufactured, which allowed in January 2018 to move them to the workshop-boathouse, where during In 2018, the hull was docked, and only on December 14, 2018, the boat was launched. At the same time, half of the Riachuelo hull structures (both the largest bow sections) were manufactured at the DCNS (Naval Goup) arsenal in Cherbourg and delivered to the ICN shipyard ready by the end of 2013. In the fall of 2015, due to the Brazilian economic crisis, work on the construction of Scorpene-type boats at ICN was suspended for several months.
After the resumption of work, in June 2016, the Brazilian Navy approved a new schedule for the construction of submarines under the PROSUB program, according to which the SBR-1 (S 40 Riachuelo) lead boat was to be launched in July 2018 and handed over to the fleet in July 2020. However, this schedule was not maintained either, and the first Riachuelo to factory sea trials took place on September 25, 2019. The boat's test program eventually took almost three years, and only now the ship has been commissioned.
For the three other boats under construction under the program SBR-2 (S 41 Humaitá), SBR-3 (S 42 Tonelero) and SBR-4 (S 43 Angostura) - the updated schedule set the dates of commissioning in 2021-2024. In reality, the second Humaitá boat, which has been under construction since 2013, was launched on December 11, 2020 and only on August 31, 2022 for the first time went to the test. The launch of Tonelero and Angostura is now planned for the end of 2022 and 2023, respectively.
As for the planned construction under the PROSUB program with French assistance of the first Brazilian nuclear submarine SN-BR (tentatively named Alvaro Alberto), which, according to the 2009 agreement, was to be built at ICN by 2025, it currently remains in the main stage of design and contract signing. The revised 2016 schedule provided for the start of detailing the SN-BR construction program in the second half of 2018, and the start date of its construction was still "under consideration", while the nominal completion date was 2029.
The technical design of the first Brazilian nuclear submarine SN-BR was finally approved only in November 2020, and on November 24, 2021, the Brazilian Navy signed an agreement to begin construction on ICN of the hull of the first Brazilian nuclear submarine SN 10 Alvaro Alberto, with the boat ready for launching in 2031. Its commissioning is now planned around 2035. Nevertheless, there are still many technical and financial problems in the Brazilian nuclear submarine program, and it is unclear whether Brazil will be able to actually implement it - at least within the designated time frame.
The ceremony of the entry into the Brazilian Navy of the head large diesel-electric submarine S 40 Riachuelo of the modified French project Scorpene, built at the Brazilian shipbuilding company Itaguai Construçoes Navais (ICN). Itaguay, 01.09.2022 (c) Agência Marinha de NotíciasVideo:
