MacArtney France Partner with Kongsberg Maritime

Royal hydrographic vessel, The DAR AL BAIDA

MacArtney France, as a representative of Kongsberg Maritime, supply sensor package for PIRIOU – shipbuilders and naval engineers supplying the Royal Moroccan Navy.

After a long partnership with SHOM – the French Service hydrographique et océanographique de la marine – the King of Morocco has commissioned a new hydrographic vessel for the Royal Moroccan Navy. The new DAR AL BAIDA launched from Concarneau, France late last year is a 72 m hydro-oceanographic and multi-mission vessel.

The romantically named DAR AL BAIDA meaning Casablanca does not necessarily portray its scientific purpose. This research vessel will be focusing on mapping Morocco’s Exclusive Expansion Zone (EEZ) – an area of up to 200 nautical miles off the coast of Morocco to be explored and utilised for marine resources including energy production from water and wind, as outlined by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Working in close cooperation with Kongsberg Maritime, MacArtney France were involved from the early stages of the tender process to provide a fully integrated oceanographic and hydrographic sensor package for the main vessel and two launches. Of this cooperation Øystein Aasbø, Area Sales Manager at Kongsberg Maritime said,

“With the good cooperation of MacArtney France and Piriou Shipyard, Kongsberg Maritime is very happy to see yet another hydrographic vessel being set into service and of course that she is packed with stat- o- the-art subsea systems from Kongsberg Maritime.”

While Kongsberg Maritime signed for the hull-mounted instrumentation, MacArtney France defined the bathymetric and imagery solution, then managed the project throughout the installation, commissioning and sea acceptance tests. The MacArtney package included EdgeTech Side Scan Sonars (SSS), Sound Velocity Sensors and Profilers from Valeport. Speaking on the scope of supply from Kongsberg Øystein Aasbø, also made this statement,

“The DAR AL BAIDA’s EM 302 Deep Water Multibeam Echo Sounder (MBES) in combination with the SBP 300 Sub-Bottom Profiler will perform high accuracy, high resolution hydrographic and geophysical survey in deep waters and her EM 2040 Shallow Water MBES will perform very detailed survey in shallower waters. Her launches with their EM 2040C Shallow Water MBES will perform tasks in shallow and confined waters where the main vessel cannot sail. The DAR AL BAIDA is truly the pride of the Moroccan Hydrographic Navy and an asset that will enhance their operational capability to a great extent”.

The MacArtney and Kongsberg contributions to the DAR AL BAIDA project have continued to strengthen our professional collaboration. The MacArtney Group places high value on developing good relationships and cooperation with all its partners. We wish the DAR AL BAIDA fair winds and following seas.

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