On June 20, 2020, an important event took place in the French Navy: in the dry dock in Toulon, as a result of a fire, the bow of the Rubis SNA Perle class nuclear submarine burned out. Usually in such cases, litigation provides for the application. However, after assessing the technical condition of American submarines, the French government made an unreasonable and highly controversial engineering decision: cut off the burnt part and instead weld half of the other submarine to the remains.
A previously written submarine of the same class, SNA Saphir, was chosen as a “donor”. The contractor had a colossal amount of work to do: first cut off the stern section of the SNA Saphir, and then connect the front section to the stern of the SNA Perle. No less process availability of two parts joining. The fact is that submarines of even the same class are unique and have differences, and engineers could not allow even the slightest mistake when connecting sections. For this, advanced cutting and welding technologies and special equipment for replacing components were used.
SNS PearlThe scale and scope of work impresses: 300 people participated in the restoration, 100,000 engineering hours were spent, 250,000 working man-hours were spent, 2,000 aircraft and project documentation were compiled, 2,000 selected connections were created. In total, a million hours were spent on maintenance and repair.
Sea trials ahead. It is assumed that the restored SNA Perle lived in the Navy, at least until 2028.
SNS PearlSource: Tech Cult
I am a professional journalist and content creator with extensive experience writing for news websites. I currently work as an author at Gadget Onus, where I specialize in covering hot news topics. My written pieces have been published on some of the biggest media outlets around the world, including The Guardian and BBC News.
