The French Oceanographic Fleet is a very large research infrastructure (TGIR – Très Grande Infrastructure de Recherche). Centred on IFREMER, it comprises all the naval resources deployed by four founding organizations: CNRS, IFREMER, IPEV, IRD.
Its main components are surface vessels (deep-sea, coastal, assigned to marine research stations), manned and autonomous submersibles, and other underwater devices.
The Fleet is a resource for numerous fields of scientific research and observation related to every aspect of oceanography, in particular earth sciences and environmental science