In La Seyne-sur-Mer, Orange celebrated the birth of the Sophie Germain on Friday, a new boat, packed with technologies, capable of repairing different types of submarine cables. Clubic was on site.
While the Raymond Croze, a boat launched in 1983, has bowed out, it is now replaced by the Sophie Germain, a ship dedicated to the repair of submarine cables, named in honor of the French mathematician disappeared in 1831. This new ship, a technological feat, was inaugurated this Friday, September 22 near La Seyne-sur-Mer, its home port, in the presence of the general director of the Orange group, Christel Heydemann, and Didier Dillard, president of Orange Marine.
Orange Marine, one of the world references in submarine cables
With this new ship, the 7e of the Orange Marine fleet, which already accounts for 15% of the global fleet in this area, the company is establishing itself as one of the 3 or 4 major global players in cable installation and repair. The operator has already installed 260,000 kilometers of fiber optic cables, having notably installed the Mediterranean part of the gigantic 2Africa, the longest cable in the world, on behalf of Meta, the parent company of Facebook.
This cable will also connect Europe, the Middle East and 16 African countries. And these submarine cables have a determining importance today in our current ultra-connected landscape, as the boss of Orange, Christel Heydemann, tells us:
“ When we use our phone and go to YouTube or that we want to call people all over the world, we go through submarine cables. 99% of international traffic passes through these cables. We therefore need these key infrastructures. As soon as a cable loses performance, the service provided slows down, and we see it immediately when we are a user. Cable maintenance is therefore key. Orange Marine and France are major global players, supported in particular by cities like Marseille, 7e global hub for data exchange. We are proud of this new ship, which will replace an old boat and which is a continuation of our mission at Orange “.
What will Sophie Germain be used for?
With its 100 meters in length, the ship will be able to intervene on any submarine cable in need of repair, whether in the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea, or the Black Sea, with the commitment to do so in 24 hours maximum, regardless of the weather. The boat has the advantage of carrying all types of cables, which justifies its speed of intervention.
Inside, we find a concentration of technologies, difficult to say otherwise. The fiber optic cable welder, for example, makes it possible to repair a damaged cable in the open sea. Remember that a fiber optic cable can today contain 24 pairs of fibers, or 48 fibers in total, each 25 microns in diameter . The process of reconditioning a fiber, which must go through the molding stage, which guarantees the electrical tightness of the cable, can take up to 24 hours. Cost of the machine, the size of a toaster: 160,000 euros.
Gigantic cables are rolled up in several tanks where telecom cables and… energy cables rub shoulders. Because yes, the Sophie Germain will be ultra versatile and will also be able to work on medium voltage cables, which will notably connect off-shore wind turbines (whose blades do not seem to be a danger for birds). The latter are “wound” around rotating tanks, which help protect the energy cables, by definition much less flexible than fiber optic cables. And all these cables are pulled… by hand, yes. The technology to automate the process has not yet been invented!
An impressive underwater robot!
But the real treasure of the Sophie Germain is its ROV Alpha, a latest generation underwater robot, equipped with sonars, cameras and metal detectors. Using its 450 kW of power, this robot measuring 6 meters long and weighing 12 tonnes can protect the cable, lift it with its manipulator arm, cut it using its guillotine, then bury a new one until at 2.5 to 3 m. All this while operating at a depth of up to 3,000 meters. It is also in Provence, in Fuveau, that it was designed and manufactured. Cost of the ROV: 6 million euros. Cutting-edge technology comes at a price.
On board, the Sophie Germain can carry up to 76 people, who will bring to life this new flagship of the Orange Marine fleet, capable of rotating 360° thanks to its 2 propellers, and which can be identified at sea thanks to GPS satellites, with a precision that allows it to find a cable within a few meters. The cards are digital. Paper cards will disappear from circulation in 2026.
Finally, a little extra: the boat ensures that it responds as best as possible to environmental issues. Its share of CO emissions2 and nitrogen oxide will be 25% lower than that emitted by a traditional cable ship in part thanks to its batteries, which can be used in addition to the motors, batteries which can be powered by the solar panels installed on the roof of the building ‘Orange Marine, in La Seyne-sur-Mer. Let us wish Sophie Germain a long life, a technological feat serving connectivity.
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