The Diplomat
Navantia has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Navaris, a joint venture formed in equal parts by the Italian company Fincantieri and the French company Naval Group, with the aim of promoting industrial collaboration to develop the European Patrol Corvette (EPC) program, the most important naval initiative within the European defense cooperation project PESCO.
This is the most ambitious collaboration project within the European naval defense field, a project that will consolidate the company at the technological forefront and open up export opportunities and boost the industrial fabric, according to the Spanish shipping company.
The European corvette will be an intelligent, innovative, sustainable, interoperable and flexible platform, prepared for the present and future challenges of the 21st century. It will be a vessel fully prepared to carry out various missions, mainly aimed at improving maritime surveillance, superiority at sea and force projection, particularly in the context of peacetime operations such as the fight against piracy and smuggling, as well as those dedicated to humanitarian assistance, migration control and guaranteeing freedom of navigation.
With dimensions of approximately 100 meters in length and 3,000 tons of displacement, the corvette could replace, as of 2027, various types of ships, from patrol vessels to light frigates.
The design requirements for these ships, which will combine common and modular solutions to allow adaptation to national requirements, will be defined by the navies participating in the project during this year 2021.
The project will have a high R&D component, with a view to innovative solutions to facilitate co-development, interoperability, ship efficiency in operations and digital data management. On the industrial side, Navaris and Navantia will act in full coordination with Fincantieri and Naval Group.
The project, which could receive European funding, has so far involved four countries: Italy, as coordinator, France, Spain and Greece, although the aim is to include other European partners in order to achieve greater industrial cooperation between European defense companies.
