(Source: Fincantieri; issued Jan. 22, 2007)
Turkey’s four new offshore patrol vessels (OPVs) will be similar to the Italian Navy’s Sirio (above). (Italian Navy photo)
TRIESTE, Italy --- Fincantieri, having agreed an industrial partnership with RMK Marine shipyard (KOC Group) of Tuzla (Istanbul), has succeeded in winning a bid called by the Turkish Authority for the Defence Industries for the construction of four patrol vessels for the local Coast Guards.
Fincantieri’s participation in the programme, with a share amounting to approximately EUR 110 million, is high-profile as it requires the supply of the design, naval components, transfer of technology and know-how, as well as the logistic support and training of the crew and staff of RMK shipyard, which will build the four vessels by the end of 2011.
Fincantieri’s success is even greater considering that top, international competitors working in cooperation with Turkish partners ran for this tender, too.
The main strengths which enabled Fincantieri to win the bid, in addition to the availability of technological transfer and full support for the construction in loco, were the agreement with RMK shipyard to sell similar vessels to third countries in future, and, most of all, the possibility to offer, compared to its competitors, a “well proven” product already successfully in service with the Italian Navy.
The design of these vessels has been developed from the patrol vessels “Sirio” and “Orione”, which Fincantieri delivered to the Italian Navy in 2003 and were built at the company’s yards in Liguria, the same yards which a Turkish delegation visited with great interest in April last year.
Thanks to their high degree of operational flexibility, the vessels - which will be built under the supervision of RINA (the Italian Ship Register) in accordance with RINA-MIL regulations – will be deployed in many roles, such as the patrol of open seas, search and rescue operations, controlling territorial waters, and anti-pollution operations.
Main features of the vessels are:
- length 88.40 metres,
- breadth 12.20 metres,
- displacement at full load 1,700 tons,
- maximum speed 22 knots,
- [range] of 3,000 nautical miles at a speed of 15 knots.
Commenting on the new order Fincantieri’s Chief Executive Officer, Giuseppe Bono, said:
“We are delighted with this order which has repaid the great efforts we have made to return to a leading position on international markets in the military sector, and also because this order opens up excellent growth prospects in an emerging, fast-developing geographical area.”
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