Spanish, SA shipbuilders confirm localisation embedded in patrol-vessel bid

6th November 2015

By: Keith Campbell

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

  

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Spanish State-owned shipbuilding group Navantia has confirmed that, if its design is chosen for the South African Navy’s (SAN’s) new offshore patrol vessels (OPVs), they will be built locally.

The SAN is seeking to procure new OPVs and inshore patrol vessels (IPVs) under Project Biro and Navantia is offering its BAM design for the OPV requirement. (BAM is the Spanish acronym for Maritime Action Vessel.) “If the BAM is selected by the SAN, the ships will be built in South Africa, with help and technology transfer from Navantia,” assures Navantia President José Manuel Revuelta.

“What we want to do is increase our cooperation with South African industry through the Paramount Group. But the ships would be built in South Africa – that is the main idea. Navantia would help Paramount with the building of the ships [as] we have done with partners in Australia with the [Royal Australian Navy’s] air warfare destroyers (AWDs).”

“The beauty of the teaming arrangement with Navantia is that it does contain a considerable amount of skills and technology transfer. We’re very excited about that,” says Paramount executive director Eric Ichikowitz. “We’ll have to increase our workforce, both skilled and semi-skilled, to build the OPVs.”

The two companies recently signed a second memorandum of understanding (MoU). This builds on a previous agreement signed between the two companies at the beginning of this year. Whereas the previous agreement between the two groups was focused on the SAN’s Project Biro programme, the new MoU has a wider focus. It is aimed at jointly pursuing naval and other maritime opportunities in other African countries. “It’s not just specifically about South African acquisition programmes,” stresses Ichikowitz. “A number of countries on the continent are looking at OPV acquisition. We have a proven ability to build sophisticated vessels and we’re absolutely confident South African can do the same with OPVs.

“For us, it’s a process of diversification, a process of internationalisation,” affirms Revuelta. “We’ve been working hard in Africa. We’ve been active in South Africa since the last century and we have a very good relationship with the country. We’re very happy with this MoU, which is really very important – the first step for Navantia to work very closely with Paramount. We’re looking to the future, and the future is more than the Biro project.” In recent years, the Spanish shipbuilder has supplied frigates to Norway, dock-equipped helicopter-carrying landing ships (better known by the warship-type designator LHD) to Australia and OPVs to Venezuela, as well as supporting the construction of the Navantia-designed AWDs in Australia. “It’s a global market and we must be globally active.

“This expanded agreement is the result of the excellent cooperation between the two technical teams on the [Biro] OPV bid,” notes Ichikowitz. (Navantia is not involved in the IPV aspect of the programme.) The BAM design, also known as the Avante 3000, has a full load displacement of 2 860 t, an overall length of 93.9 m and a beam of 14.2 m. It can accommodate 70 people but needs a minimum crew of only 35. “These vessels would be considerably bigger than those we’ve traditionally built, but we’re confident we’ll manage it,” he reports. “We’ll have to enlarge our facilities. But we have a number of options now. And we’re optimistic that other opportunities will arise elsewhere in Africa. We’re combining Spanish expertise and a proven design with a South African cost base to offer proven designs to other countries in Africa.”

Four BAMs are already in service with the Spanish Navy and two more are under construction. Spanish Navy BAMs have already undertaken antipiracy missions in the Indian Ocean, and two of them have visited South Africa, in 2012 and 2013. This month, another BAM will stop in Cape Town, on her way back to her base in the Canary Islands, after participating in the Atalanta antipiracy operation.

“We have very good relations,” highlights Spanish ambassador Juan Sell. “We have very good defence relations. We need to have our defence industries work together. So its very good to see Navantia and Paramount get together – first for Biro and now for wider cooperation in Africa. We believe such cooperation is the future – the way things should be.”

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

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