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Apr 4 2025

OCCAR Horizon MLU Programme Achieves Critical Design Review

Paris/France, 4 April, 2025 -The Horizon Mid-Life-Upgrade (MLU) concerns the four ships of the Horizon Class (Vessels Forbin and Chevalier Paul for France, Andrea Doria and Caio Duilio for Italy). The main objectives of the MLU are obsolescence resolution of systems/equipment, design, development and integration on board of the new systems. The main core of the Common activities is focused on the development, production and integration onboard of the Anti-Air Warfare (AAW) and Electronic Warfare Systems (EWS) domains’ systems providing enhanced, new capabilities and performances against the most modern threats.

After the completion of the System Design Review (SDR) achieved on 3 October 2024, another important milestone was reached in the programme with the completion of Critical Design Review (CDR) activities on 4 April, 2025. This milestone was achieved to the satisfaction of both Participating States involved, who worked with OCCAR to identify the most innovative technological solutions to counter the current high-performance threats.

The CDR completion officially defines the transition from the design phase to the development phase and represents another pillar in the cooperative programme between Italy and France managed by OCCAR.

After the development phase, the Integration of the new systems on board is planned from mid-year 2026 for the Italian First of Class (FOC) and from the end 2027 for the Italian Follow-on Ship (FOS). Then, for the French ships, integration activities are planned from mid-year 2028 for France FOC and from the second half of 2029 for France FOS. Activities are expected to be completed around the end of 2030 (+ guarantee period). All the activities are conducted in a single contract by two Co-Contractors, NAVIRIS and EUROSAM. A number of activities developed under the S&E contract between OCCAR (FSAF-PAAMS PD) and EUROSAM also contribute into the HORIZON MLU contract.