DCNS has successfully completed ship check for the Brazilian Navy’s Clemenceau-class aircraft carrier São Paulo (A12) at the naval premises of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The DCNS team conducted diagnostics and trials for the aircraft carrier’s steam catapult and successfully restored the catapult’s potential while meeting the Brazilian Navy’s requirements.
The key element for the aircraft carrier capability, the steam catapult, has been dry-fired twice while validating its performance.
São Paulo aircraft carrier’s steam catapult, which is designed to launch planes from the deck while allowing the aircraft to achieve high speeds in a very short distance, had already performed more than 5,000 launches.
In September 2000, the Brazilian Navy acquired the Chantier de l’Atlantique-built aircraft carrier, which was previously operated as Foch (R 99) by the French Navy.
Capable of accommodating 1,920 personnel including ship company, air group and troops while cruising at a maximum speed of 30k, 266m-long São Paulo has a beam of 51.2m, draught of 8.6m and full load displacement capacity of 33,673t.
The ship can operate up to 37 fixed-wing aircraft and two helicopters such as A-4KU Skyhawks, AS 532 SC Cougars, SH-3A/B Sea King helicopters and Eurocopter AS350 Ecureuils transport helicopters.
Powered by four Parsons steam turbines, the warship is equipped with DRBV-23B air sentry radar, DRBV-15 low-altitude or surface sentry radar, NRBA-50 approach radar, DRBI-10 tri-dimensional air sentry radar, DRBC-32C fire radar and DRBN-34 navigation radars.
The vessel is armed with four 100mm modèle 64 turrets and two SACP Crotale infrared differential ecartometry (EDIR) systems.
Image: DCNS team onboard the Brazilian Navy’s Sao Paulo aircraft carrier. Photo: courtesy of DCNS.
