PARIS — The French naval defense and energy specialist DCNS expects to submit early next year an offer in Norway's potential tender for attack submarines — a competition that pits the state-controlled naval shipbuilder against German archrival ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS), the newspaper Journal du Dimanche reported.
The Norwegian technical requirements landed three weeks ago, and DCNS aims to respond "early in 2017," the newspaper reported. "We are once again in competition with TKMS of Germany, which needs this contract to ensure its survival," DCNS Chairman Hervé Guillou said.
Work on the subs will be "100 percent French," without a technology transfer, the paper reported.
Oslo, however, has made offset requirements, with the prospective order intended to help continue development of a competent and competitive local defense industry.
"The Norwegian Parliament expects that a potential future procurement will ensure contracts for the Norwegian defense industry equal to the procurement cost, and that these contracts will provide access to the home market of the chosen supplier," the Defence Ministry said in April, when DCNS and TKMS were announced as the short-listed bidders.
The Norwegian parliament is expected to decide later this year whether to approve a procurement program, the ministry said.
DCNS would pitch its diesel-electric Scorpene attack sub, modified to meet the specific Norwegian requirements. Norway operates six Ula-class boats, and a decision has yet to be made whether or not the whole fleet will be replaced.
