text translated from the corresponding article in french . march 2013 click show for important translation instructions . view a machine translated version of the french article . google s machine translation is a useful starting point for translations but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate rather than simply copy pasting machine translated text into the english wikipedia . do not translate text that appears unreliable or low quality . if possible verify the text with references provided in the foreign language article . after translating translated fr dcns must be added to the talk page to ensure copyright compliance . for more guidance see wikipedia translation . dcns s.a. type soci t anonyme industry defence founded 1631 ; 385 years ago 1631 headquarters paris france area served world key people herv guillou ceo products patrol vessels corvettes frigates destroyers lhd aircraft carriers submarines ssk ssn ssbn revenue 3.04 billion 2015 net income 58 million 2015 owner ape 64 % thales 35 % dcns actionnariat 1 % number of employees 12 953 worldwide 2015 website www.dcnsgroup.com dcns is a french industrial group specialised in naval defence and energy . the group employs more than 13 000 people in 10 countries . dcns a private law company in which the french state holds a 64 % stake thales 35 % and the personnel a 1 % stake is the heir to the french naval dockyards and the direction des constructions et armes navales dcan which became the dcn direction des constructions navales in 1991 and dcns since 2007 . contents 1 history 1.1 the birth of the naval dockyards 1.2 industrialisation and technical innovations 1.3 reorganisation of activities 1.4 transformation into a company 1.5 the development of the dcns group 2 activities 2.1 naval defence 2.1.1 surface naval systems 2.1.2 submarines and underwater weapons 2.2 energy and marine infrastructures 3 corporate responsibility 4 organisation 4.1 governance 5 financial data 6 sites 6.1 in france 6.2 worldwide 6.2.1 europe 6.2.2 asia middle east 6.2.3 americas 7 controversy 8 see also 9 references 10 further reading history edit dcns has a heritage of 380 years . major shipyards were built in france in ruelle 1751 nantes indret 1771 lorient 1778 and subsequently in cherbourg 1813 . others were to follow . as early as 1926 what we know as dcns today already had all the facilities now owned by the group in mainland france . the birth of the naval dockyards edit in 1624 cardinal de richelieu who was louis xiii s prime minister at the time devised a naval policy that provided for the development of the dockyards in order to give france sufficient maritime power to rival that of england . this policy was implemented from 1631 with the creation of the ponant fleet in the atlantic and the levant fleet in the mediterranean the brest dockyards and the extension of the toulon dockyards created under henri iv . 1 the policy was continued by colbert louis xiv s navy minister who developed several major dockyards . he extended the dockyards in toulon ordered the excavation of the docks in brest and founded the rochefort dockyards . his son seignelay who succeeded him in 1683 followed in his footsteps . 2 the french royal navy s network of dockyards was further strengthened in the 18th century . in 1750 the marquis de montalembert converted a former paper mill into a forge producing cannons at ruelle sur touvre . in 1777 antoine de sartine louis xvi s navy minister opened a cannon foundry near the naval shipyards in indret . in the same year work started on the development of the port in cherbourg which was completed in 1813 . in 1778 the lorient naval dockyards succeeded la compagnie des indes du port de l orient . 3 the naval dockyards in rochefort were closed in 1926 . in 1937 the establishment in saint tropez was opened on the former site of the company schneider which specialised in torpedoes . by this time most of the dcns french sites already existed and they have not changed since then . industrialisation and technical innovations edit during the 19th century the naval dockyards underwent a transformation as the fleet of sailing ships was replaced by motorised vessels . the sites were industrialised and gradually specialised . in 1865 the naval dockyards in brest became exclusively military with the closure of the penfeld port to commercial vessels . in 1898 after specialising in the building of vessels with propellers rather than sails the shipyards in cherbourg were tasked exclusively with the construction of submarines . finally in 1927 a decree definitively laid out the missions of the various naval dockyards 4 brest and lorient were tasked with the construction of large vessels cherbourg with building submarines while toulon bizerte and saigon took charge of the maintenance of the fleet . this rationalisation of the roles of the naval dockyards was accompanied by technical and military innovations and the production of vessels at a higher pace against the backdrop of an arms race and colonisation . in 1858 gloire the first ocean going battleship in the world sailed out of the dockyards in toulon . the 1860s saw the arrival of the first torpedo boats and military submarines with the launch of plongeur in 1863 . the technical problems experienced by this first ever motorised submarine meant that it remained a prototype rather than an operational war vessel . but it did open the way for the construction of gymnote in 1886 and le narval in 1899 which were the first operational torpedo submarines in history . the production of heavy surface vessels was also stepped up in the 1910s . several battleships were built before the start of the first world war and the fleet was strengthened by the 35 000 ton richelieu in 1939 . reorganisation of activities edit in 1946 a review of the french naval dockyards completed the attributions of the various sites announced in the 1927 decree . brest was tasked with the production and repair of large vessels lorient with the construction of medium sized vessels cherbourg with submarines and toulon with repairing and maintaining the fleet . amongst the inland sites indret took over the vessel propulsion activities ruelle the construction of guns large parts and electronics saint tropez the production of torpedoes and gu rigny the construction of naval chains and anchors . five sites are located overseas mers el k bir bizerte dakar diego suarez and papeete . until 1961 the french navy maintained and repaired its fleet itself through the directions des constructions et armes navales dcan in the naval dockyards . the engineers working in the dcans were officers in the french navy s engineering division . at this time the dockyards broke away from the navy creating the opportunity for the diversification of their activities in the 1970s . a single dcan covered all the mainland and overseas naval dockyards reporting to the direction technique des constructions navales dtcn . in turn the dtcn was answerable to the d l gation minist rielle pour l armement dma set up by michel debr . in 1977 la dma became the d l gation g n rale de l armement dga . the purpose of this reform was to centralise all the armed forces design and construction capacities in a single inter armed forces delegation operating under the government s authority . 5 in 1958 the official launch by general de gaulle of the french military nuclear programme and deterrent policy prompted the restructuring of the defence industry and defence technology . the c lacanthe project brought together the dtcn and the cea and in 1971 redoutable the first french missile launching nuclear submarine came into service . transformation into a company edit the international economic climate and decolonisation in the 1970s lead the dcan to venture into new markets . the loss of the overseas naval dockyards was compounded by the french navy s reduced needs for vessels and the increased difficulty in obtaining funding . this trend gathered more pace after the end of the cold war despite the diversification of the dcan activities which now included maintaining the electric power network and clearing mines from the coastline . some sites also specialised in civilian projects brest built trucks gu rigny made agricultural machinery and toulon produced civilian vessels yachts liners . but looking beyond the order books it was the public status of the dcan that was gradually called into question and it came to be considered as an administrative obstacle to the development of the potential of france s naval dockyards . this transformation occurred in several stages . in 1991 the dcan was christened the dcn direction des construction navales . in the same year dcn international was created . the mission of this plc was to promote the activities of the dcn on an international scale and to facilitate the export of its products . in 1992 the dcn s activities for the state were attached to the naval programmes department spn which was the contracting authority for vessels for the french navy . since then the dcn has only been responsible for industrial activities while remaining part of the dga . this change of status has allowed dcn international to provide the dcn with commercial and legal support in the development of its international trade since the end of the 1990s . the development strategy pursued by dcn international resulted in the signing of several major contracts . in 1994 three agosta class submarines were delivered to pakistan and in 1997 two scorp ne class submarines were built for chile . a contract was also won in 2000 to supply six formidable class frigates to singapore . in 2007 a contract was signed with malaysia for two scorp ne submarines through the subsidiary armaris . 6 the dcn has also won contracts in the field of off shore drilling for oil . in 1997 the brest site modernised the sedco 707 platform and now builds sfx type oil rigs . 7 in 1999 the dcn became an agency with national authority scn reporting directly to the ministry of defence . finally in 2001 the french government decided to transform the dcn into a fully state owned private limited company . the change of status came into effect in 2003 . the dcn became just dcn which no longer stood for direction des constructions navales . the development of the dcns group edit in 2007 dcn acquired the french naval activities branch of thales armaris a former subsidiary that was equally shared between dcn and thales and mopa2 the company in charge of the project to build a second aircraft carrier . to stress its new identity the resulting group was named dcns . thales acquired a 25 % stake in the group s capital . in 2011 thales increased its share of dcns capital to 35 % . 8 construction of the stealthy multi function frigates fremm started in 2007 . in 2008 an aerial drone landed on the deck of a frigate at sea for the first time in history . in 2013 the group set up dcns research to promote its research activities . dcns india was founded in 2008 thanks to two contracts signed in 2005 and 2008 for the delivery of six conventional scorp ne submarines . similarly in 2013 a submarine construction site was opened in brazil . the group created the dcns university in 2013 to deliver internal and external training . activities edit dcns activities can be broken down into two main sectors naval defence the group s historical core business ships submarines operational readiness management of the forces and energy and marine infrastructures renewable marine energies civilian nuclear energy construction of naval bases and electric power plants . naval defence edit dcns designs develops