Naviris
The Horizon Frigates. Modernised by Naviris.
Mid-Life Upgrade (MLU) of the Horizon air defense frigates
The HRZ programme delivered 4 ships between 2009 and 2011 (“Andrea Doria”, “Caio Duilio”, “Forbin” and “Chevalier Paul”) that will need to undergo their midlife update between 2026 and 2030 with the aim to preserve the highest level technology level of this class of vessels in order to maintain/increase their capabilities/performances until their end of life. In 2020 Naviris was awarded by OCCAR with a HRZ MLU Feasibility Study Contract, to be undertaken with the support of Fincantieri, Naval Group and other Suppliers like Eurosam, Leonardo, Thales, Sigen, MBDA. The HRZ MLU Feasibility Study, carried out over 15 months, was aimed at identifying and analyzing the modifications to be carried out on French (FR) and Italian (IT) HRZ class destroyers to cover three level of proliferating of next future threats.
Following the completion of the Feasibility Study, the Nations tasked OCCAR to commence preliminary activities in order to allow the preparation of a common HRZ MLU Contract, including the AAW domain, to support the procurement activities of the FR and IT HRZ MLU.
Then, IT and FR Ministries of Defence have entrusted OCCAR with the management of the HRZ Programme and they requested OCCAR, as the Contracting Authority (CA), to seek for an offer from Industry for HRZ MLU Contract.
In January 2022, two contracts for additional de-risking studies were awarded to Naviris to be taken as reference for the MLU HRZ contract.
On 20th July 2022, OCCAR has issued to Naviris and Eurosam an Invitation To Tender (ITT) relevant to the MLU of the 4 FR/IT HRZ Destroyers concerning the overall PF and CS update. Following the successful completion of the bid phase Naviris, in co-contractorship with Eurosam, was then assigned the contract by OCCAR on July 2023.
In view of the above, the HRZ MLU Contract will fulfill the following major Nations’ needs, which are Enhancement of the AAW Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM) capabilities, Platform (PF) and Combat System (CS) upgrades, and obsolescence resolution.
After the development phase, the Integration of the new systems on board is planned from September 2026 for the Italian First of Class (FOC) and from August 2028 for the Italian Follow-on Ship (FOS). Then, for the French ships, integration activities are planned from mid-year 2028 for France FOC and end of year 2029 for France FOS. Activities are expected to be completed around the beginning of year 2031 (+ guarantee period).