All the latest military aims of Fincantieri
The signing of the contract for Navy submarines between Fincantieri and Occar has been set for next Friday. Meanwhile, Greece is considering purchasing four Fremm frigates designed by the Trieste shipbuilder
Fincantieri is close to closing the contract for the construction of four U212 NFS (Near Future Submarine) submarines of the Italian Navy.
"The signing is set for next Friday (February 26), as the agency Occar (Joint Organization for Cooperation in Arms Matters) confirmed to Sole 24 Ore, which will sign the contract with its director, Admiral Matteo Bisceglia with the big shipbuilding industry and acting on behalf of the Italian State with the General Secretariat of Defense as principal ”, Celestina Dominelli writes today in the daily newspaper directed by Fabio Tamburini.
The contract was already known in mid-December , according to a notice published on December 9 in the official EU tender database on the basis of which the Italian Ministry of Defense had notified the contract to Fincantieri. The total value of the order is 2.3 billion. The first tranche will have a value of 1.35 billion and will concern the construction of the first two submarines.
The call from Fincantieri for the communication of the group's economic and financial results at 31 December 2020 is also expected on Friday .
Meanwhile, on February 19, the Greek daily Kathimerini reported that Greece is considering a proposal from Fincantieri and Leonardo for the supply of four Fremm multi-mission frigates.
All the details.
THE CONTRACT FOR U212 NFS SUBMARINES
As mentioned, the formalization of the contract for Fincantieri arrived in mid-December in a European key and under the umbrella of the Occar (the Joint Organization for Cooperation in Arms), through a notice published by the Italian Ministry of Defense on the database of EU tenders.
The contract notified to Fincantieri has a value of 1.35 billion euros for the construction of the first two U212 NFS (Near Future Submarine), providing for a total of four submarines for the Italian Navy, alongside the four units already in service built by the group led by Giuseppe Bono under license from the German ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems.
THE VALUE OF THE ORDER
The total value of the order is 2.3 billion euros.
Of the first tranche worth 1.35 billion euros, "806 million come from the 2018 budget and 544 million from the Fund for the financing of investments and infrastructure development of the country", established in 2017, subsequently refinanced and also known as the "fund ”, Il Sole 24 Ore had previously specified.
THE U212 PROGRAM
It is therefore the last step in the path started with the double parliamentary go-ahead to the ministerial decree scheme containing the approval of the multi-year program for the development, acquisition and ten-year technical-logistic support of the first two U212 submarines deriving from the class Todaro, which was then followed by the congruity opinion of the Court of Auditors and the two ministerial conventions which guaranteed the financial coverage of all the programs of the armed forces.
ALL OPPORTUNITIES WITH THE U212A PROGRAM
"The first and second series of U212A boats – underlines the Sole 24 Ore – have therefore allowed Fincantieri to develop a network of industrial connections at an international level which has contributed to making it a shipbuilding center of excellence also for design, construction and life support for submarines. Not to mention that the construction of the four units also represented an important showcase for various national realities involved in the development of cutting-edge underwater systems (above all, Avio, Calzoni and Leonardo), but also for a long list of technological supply chains following Fincantieri, the Italian design authority, with a consistent series of small and medium-sized companies in the related industries ”.
SALE FRIGATE FREMM TO GREECE IN SIGHT?
But the closing of the contract for the new Navy submarines would not be the only recent success of the Trieste shipbuilding group.
Last weekend, Fincantieri saw the opportunity to sell Fremm frigates to the Greek Navy, which intends to renew its fleet.
In fact, according to Kathimerini , Athens is evaluating a proposal from Fincantieri and Leonardo for the supply of four Fremm multi-mission frigates. These units constitute "the backbone of the Italian Navy" which has 8 units destined to become 10 once the program is completed, points out the Greek daily.
IN THE TRACK OF THE PROJECT WITH THE US NAVY
The Greek newspaper also recalled that "Fincantieri's Fremm was selected as a platform project by the US Navy for its new generation frigate known as FFG (X)" (Constellation class) and that two Fremm were recently acquired by the Egypt". ( Here the deepening of Start on the first Fremm frigate delivered to Egypt ).
ITALY WITH FINCANTIERI CHALLENGES FRANCE
Therefore Kathimerini argues that the Greek Navy is interested in rapidly acquiring two frigates already in service in Italy as an “intermediate solution” pending the entry into service of the newly built units, citing Fremm or Maestrale class frigates as intermediate solutions.
"Pending confirmation and clarification, the news lends itself to various evaluations" commented Gianandrea Gaiani, director of SviluppoDifesa . “First of all, the interest in Fincantieri's frigates risks taking away from France the European monopoly of new military supplies to Greece, also favored by the clear stance of Paris alongside Athens and against Turkish expansionism in the Mediterranean”.
“A possible affirmation of Fincantieri's ships in Greece would constitute a new success for the Italian naval shipbuilding industry at the expense of the French one after the mega-contract for the Qatar fleet and the supply of two Fremm to Egypt” pointed out Gaiani.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/tutte-le-ultime-mire-militari-di-fincantieri/ on Tue, 23 Feb 2021 15:26:15 +0000.