Norwegian Navy To Build Nine MCMVs With Composite Hulls

Barracuda Technologies, Laholm, Sweden, has been awarded a comprehensive contract by Kvaerner Batservice a.s., Norway, to supply the cellular core material and syntactic filler system for nine new mine countermeasure hovercraft/ catamaran vessels (MCMVs) ordered by the Norwegian Navy.

The contract, valued at SEK 50,000,000 (about $9,000,000), covers the supply of Divinycell cellular core material and Divilette syntactic filler systems to be used in the hulls and superstructures for the new type of combination hovercraft/ catamarans.

These MCMVs, over 164 feet long, are an entirely new combination of hovercraft and catamaran constructed of composite materials.

This type of vessel, said to be the first of its kind in the world, is built using a sandwich construction technique in which a core of Divinycell is laminated on both sides with reinforced polyesters (glass fiber).

The choice of materials provides the vessel with unique characteristics. Divinycell Sandwich combines great strength with low weight, and the technique provides an extremely advantageous ratio between mechanical properties and material fatigue, as well as unparalleled resistance to the heavy shock loads associated with mine detonation.

Delivery date for the first MCMVs is 1992, and the entire series should be afloat by the mid-90s.

Divinycell, a cross-linked, expanded structural cellular polymer, is the heart of a system of materials and services included in Barracuda Technologies' investment in advanced composite materials. This system encompasses many qualities and densities of structural cellular polymers for various applications, from large submarine constructions operating at a depth of 1,000 meters to civilian and military vessels.

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