The DGA orders 11 operational Zodiac Hurricane RIBs (EDO)
The Directorate General of Armament (DGA) notified on May 4, 2020 to the company Zodiac Milpro International the market for the manufacture of eleven drome boats * Zodiac Hurricane ZH-638 IO for the benefit of surface vessels of the
French Navy in addition to the sixty EDOs currently in service.
Like the other ones, these RIBs will be deployed for sea state missions, surveillance and self-defense, rescue missions and assistance to men overboard.
They will be deployed aboard the amphibious helicopter (PHA) Mistral and Tonnerre, the frigate La Fayette and the Monge vessel (BEM).
The main characteristics of an EDO are:
- Displacement full load: 3.4 tonnes;
- 7 m long and 2.60 m wide;
- Speed of 30 knots in «rescue boat» configuration with 5 people on board, speed of around 20 knots when fully
- loaded with 14 people on board;
- Transport of a crew composed of 2 people + an intervention team of 12 people.
- The first EDO of this new market will be delivered in March 2021, and the other ten boats will be delivered from this
- date to February 2022.
SOURCE: Direction Générale de l’Armement