Programme

Aircraft carrier

New generation

Development and production of 2 on-board nuclear steam supply systems and their support system

©Naval Group

PA-Ng Programme

TechnicAtome has been conducting studies on PA-Ng new generation aircraft carriers since March 2021. Its nuclear stream supply system, called K22, will provide increased capacities compared to the previous designs (volume, weight, energy, power)

© Naval Group

Main services

Development of the K22 NSSS: design and dimensioning studies, layout of the installations, definition and qualification of the NSSS equipment and systems, definition and qualification of the nuclear fuels
Safety studies and production of official documentation
Production of the two NSSSs : procurement of the equipment, assembly of the NSSSs, production of the instrumentation and control and carrying out of the startup tests
Development and production of the support system including in particular the core loading and unloading tools and the training platforms for the training of the Navy personnel

Particularities of the SNLE 3G NSSSs

The PA-Ng will benefit from the advantages of nuclear propulsion, the leading features of which are:

Operational autonomy enabling a highly sustained navigation speed over time and without the need to refuel
A large quantity of onboard energy enabling major technical outages to be spaced every 10 years, thus increasing operational availability

The NSSSs of the PA-Ng are in line with the compact NSSS series and will thus benefit from the feedback from this series, but also from the technological innovations which will be onboarded on the SNLE 3G programme.

The heavy tonnage and technical specifications of the PA-Ng have led to the design of a K22 NSSS with an increased power and energy capacity compared with the previous K15 generation equipping the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carriers.

© Naval Group

Main stages:

October 2018 – December 2020 : Highly Synoptic Pre-Project Phase (APTS)
December 2019: Submission of the nuclear rough outline to the Ministry of the Armed Forces, support to the choice of the method of propulsion of the PA-Ng
December 8, 2020 : Announcement by the President of the Republic of the choice of nuclear propulsion to equip the PA-Ng
March 2021 : Launch of the Synoptic Pre-Project phase (APS)
2038 : Provisional delivery timetable