The French government expects to award a contract for six Barracuda-class, nuclear-powered attack submarines to shipbuilder DCN and Areva SA by the end of this year, Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie says.

The six submarines will be delivered from 2016 through 2026, Alliot-Marie said at a briefing at the Euronaval naval trade show in Le Bourget, France. DCN chief executive officer Jean-Marie Poimboeuf estimated earlier this month the order would be valued at 8 billion euros ($10 billion). DCN will build the ships and equipment and Areva will supply the nuclear reactors.

The vessels, which can be used for anti-surface and anti-submarine warfare, as well as intelligence gathering, will replace the French Navy’s Rubis submarines, and will be more “stealthy,” or difficult to detect, than the Rubis, Guillaume Martin de Clausonne, a Navy captain, said at the trade event.

“The Barracuda is about twice of the size of the Rubis, which it’s replacing, and will be more stealthy,” said de Clausonne, who is captain of frigates for the French navy and chief of its Barracuda project. Intelligence gathering will be a key role, he said.

France’s 36 billion-euro defense-spending plan for 2007 includes 10.4 billion euros for modernizing strategic missiles, transport planes and warships. Alliot-Marie has said the country is one of three in Europe, along with Greece and the United Kingdom, that spends more than 2 percent of gross domestic product on defense.

The Barracuda will be 100 meters (328 feet) long, about the length of a soccer field, displace 4,600 tons of water and dive as much as 350 meters. The model will carry a crew of 60, compared with 80 sailors for the Rubis. The Barracuda is more automated and so needs fewer crew members, the navy captain said. The maximum speed is 23 knots.

Subcontractors will include Sagem, part of Safran SA; Thales SA; and European Aeronautic, Defence & Space Co.

De Clausonne declined to provide any information about the specifications of the nuclear engine. The vessel won’t carry nuclear weapons.

Alliot-Marie reiterated a call for further consolidation of the European naval industry as additional competitors from South Korea and Russia build capacity.

“The key for an ambitious industrial policy is to reinforce our companies,” the minister said. “We have to give them the opportunity to develop together and weigh at a world level.”

About 20 naval-defense companies and 20 shipyards operate in Europe, compared with six shipyards and three primary naval contractors in the U.S., the world’s biggest military market. General Dynamics’ Electric Boat shipyard in Groton, Conn., is the nation’s nuclear submarine maker, and has used components made in Rhode Island.

Takeovers in the European industry in the past two years include BAE Systems PLC’s sale of the Bremen, Germany-based Atlas Elektronik naval-electronics unit to ThyssenKrupp AG and EADS in August, and ThyssenKrupp’s 2005 purchase of Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft AG, the world’s largest maker of conventionally powered submarines.

“It is not a stable final point,” Jean-Georges Malcor, Thales naval division director. “There will be more moves and integration at the European level.”

Thales, Europe’s biggest defense-electronics maker, plans to buy 25 percent of state-owned DCN with an option to buy as much as 35 percent. Alliot-Marie said she expects the transaction to be completed in a few weeks.

“The agreement will be operational by the end of 2006,” said Poimboeuf. He said other companies may also buy a stake in DCN in coming years.

Stealth capabilities in the Barracuda’s so-called power projection role will enable it to advance and withdraw from firing positions without risk of detection, DCN said. The model will be capable of firing the Scalp naval cruise missile provided by MBDA, a joint venture of EADS, Finmeccanica SpA and BAE.

The Barracuda will also be able to operate for 10 years between complex overhauls, longer than other submarines made by DCN, the company said.

Alliot-Marie said the government also expects to get a proposal before the end of the year from Neuilly Sur Seine, France-based Thales and DCN to build a second aircraft carrier. France has only one in operation, the Charles de Gaulle, and wants a second in service by 2014.

A joint venture of Thales and DCN won a design contract in December 2005 for the aircraft carrier after Frances’s military-procurement agency determined a model that Thales is helping develop for the U.K.’s Royal Navy can be adapted to French needs.

Thales is doing design work for two Royal Navy aircraft carriers in a 2.8 billion-pound ($5 billion) project shared with BAE, Europe’s biggest defense contractor.

The minister said there is “90 percent convergence” between the U.K. and French requirements.

“The more you have convergence, the more you can reduce the financial costs,” Alliot-Marie said. “That’s what I’m interested in and that’s what interests my British counterparts.”