The French Navy has decided to adapt its navigation to the cyber context, by banking on the past. To avoid cyberattacks, it is helping to revive the sextant industry.
No, the sextant is not an object from another time, and yes, you can make something new out of something old. In a world crushed by technology, the French Navy is taking a step back towards a traditional method of navigation, by equipping its ships with sextants. These instruments, manufactured by craftsman Patrick Lorho in Eure, offer a reliable alternative to the growing risk of cyberattacks targeting geolocation systems.
Sextants that do not depend on vulnerable navigation systems
The sextant, although invented in the 18e century, in the 1730s, is a navigation instrument which makes it possible to measure the angle between two objects, generally a celestial body and the horizon, to determine the position of a ship or an airplane. Day and night, it allows you to know your position at sea thanks to readings of the angles of the stars or the sun.
Although it has often been replaced by more advanced technological tools, such as GPS, it remains essential in terms of security, in that it allows you to navigate completely independently, without depending on external signals, such as the famous GPS.
And the French Navy, very much subject to cyberattacks like other entities of the Armed Forces and the French State, has understood this well. It has placed an order for around fifteen sextants to equip some of its ships. The idea here is to have reliable means which, as we said, do not depend on vulnerable computer systems.
Each item costs between 1,200 and 1,500 euros
With 140 vessels in total, the French Navy has no room for error, and it is quite atypical to see that it offers a promising horizon, you will excuse the play on words, to the French sextant.
She thus placed an order with Patrick Lorho, a passionate craftsman, who has been producing these instruments since 1990. Each of them is a highly technical object, made up of around forty parts, and whose good mastery makes it possible to achieve an accuracy of around a hundred meters.
Mr. Lorho, who works near Saint-Vincent-du-Boulay, in Eure, almost almost threw in the towel in 2018, ready to retire. But he was somehow awakened by Loïck Peyron, winner of the Route du Rhum in 2014 and determined, in the 2018 edition, to sail in a traditional way. The industrial designer and fitter, which also counts Airbus among its clients, now manufactures lighter and more resistant sextants, aluminum having replaced metal. Each object, which requires around 15 hours of work, costs between 1,200 and 1,500 euros.
Source : Point
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