DAHLGREN, Va. - French military officials touring Naval
Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division (NSWCDD), received briefings on Navy
technical programs from the electromagnetic railgun to the hypervelocity
projectile, Sept. 4.
The event, and recent British Navy visits, supports the
Chief of Naval Operations' Sailing Directions to operate forward in new and
flexible ways with access to strategic maritime crossroads.
"Our forward presence will build on and strengthen
our partnerships and alliances where sea lanes, resources, and vital U.S.
interests intersect," states the CNO Sailing Directions regarding the
Navy’s contribution and characteristics over the next 10-15 years .
French Rear Adm. Jean-Philippe Chaineau, Deputy Chief of
Naval Staff Plans and Programs, and French Rear Adm. Christian Dugué, Naval Technical
Director for the Defense Procurement Agency, led the delegation which toured
NSWCDD, including human systems integration, directed energy weapons,
electromagnetic environmental effects, and electromagnetic railgun facilities.
"Working together with our allies during the science
and technology as well as the RDT&E (research, development, test and
evaluation) phases can lead to many benefits such as program improvements, cost
and time savings plus enhanced interoperability," said Jed Ryan, NSWCDD International
Partnering Office lead.
The French military officials also toured the gun line at
the Navy's Potomac River Test Range — 715 acres of land and a
169-square-nautical-mile water area that stretches along the lower 51 miles of
the Potomac River. They saw how Dahlgren's gun test facility evolved and
expanded to include numerous scientific and response-force missions serving all
branches of the United States armed forces.