Fincantieri, Navantia and Naval Group, the next steps for the European corvette
What emerges about the European Patrol Corvette (Epc) program from the survey conducted by Prometeia in collaboration with Aiad, the association representing Italian defense, aerospace and security companies chaired by Guido Crosetto
Fincantieri advance with the French Naval Group and the Spanish Navantia on the European corvette of the future.
The meeting of the EPC (European Patrol Corvette) Project Team was held on 8 March at Palazzo Marina, dedicated to the project of the European corvette, a class of second-line naval units designed in coordination with some of the EU navies and which will be built by an industrial consortium made up of four companies from three different countries, including the Italian giant Fincantieri.
The meeting, dedicated to the drafting of the common requirements, was fundamental to further develop the capacitive development document at the basis of the project and to seal the convergence of intentions of the four countries in order to make the project certainly feasible by the industrial consortium, reports a note from the Italian Navy.
As a recent research by Aiad explains, the association representing Italian defense, aerospace and security companies, "the EPC (European Patrol Corvette) program constitutes a unique opportunity for cooperation for the companies in the sector interviewed. the navies, shipyards and defense companies of European countries, in order to integrate technological innovations in response to the targeted operational needs of the individual navies ".
After the meeting of 8 March, the next steps are those of starting the national approval process of the Operational Need to continue with the project elaboration by defining the detailed requirements.
According to the Italian Navy, the contract for the construction of the European corvettes could be signed as early as 2025.
THE EPC PROGRAM
In November 2019, as part of the Permanent Structured Cooperation of the European Union in the field of defense, the European Patrol Corvette project was selected as the only major program in the naval field.
The European corvette will be a patrol-type military ship, endowed with remarkable qualities of flexibility, capable of carrying out multiple missions and therefore both "presence and surveillance" tasks and those with a "combat" profile.
The first players to decline the program from an industrial point of view were, at the beginning of 2020, Naviris (the joint venture between Fincantieri and Naval Group), Fincantieri, Naval Group and Navantia, with the support of the Spanish, Italian and French Navy; subsequently, Greece also joined the project.
In February 2021, since at least three member states are required to access the programs financed by EDF, Naviris and the Spanish company Navantia signed a Memorandum of Understanding aimed at expanding industrial cooperation for the European Patrol Corvette program . The EDA steering committee, from which Italy had requested support, approved in January 2021 the launch of a specific project under the aegis of the EDA, which will contribute to the implementation of the EPC project.
INCLUDE OTHER EUROPEAN PARTNERS
The ambition of the project, to which four countries at Pesco level have joined so far (Italy as coordinator, France, Spain and Greece), is to include other European partners to integrate the technological base, which is determined by the requirements of the Epc of the individual nations as well as the strategy and guidelines of the European Commission.
Portugal is currently included as an observer.
NOT ONLY FOR FINCANTIERI, BUT ALSO FOR LEONARDO, MBDA AND ELT
The Epc program – underlines Aiad – constitutes an important opportunity for all companies in the Italian defense chain (Fincantieri, Leonardo, Mbda, Elt, ..) in the face of their experience on challenging programs from Nave Cavour, to destroyers of the class Horizon, to the European multi-mission frigates (Fremm IT) and finally to the Multipurpose Offshore Patrol Vessels (PPA), and to a proven and articulated supply capacity that ranges from the naval field, to combat systems, to electronics, to missile.
THE NEXT STEPS
Finally, the Aiad study recalls what the next steps of the program are.
First of all, the establishment of an industrial consortium between the shipbuilding companies Fincantieri, Naval Group, Navantia and Naviris, the latter with coordination tasks. After that, the program must be co-financed by the individual participating countries to the extent necessary to carry out the construction of 20 units (8 for Italy, 6 for Spain and 6 for France), with the start of production of the first prototype in 2025 and end of the program in 2035.
“An adequate and continuous level of funding is essential for the implementation of the program themselves” Aiad points out.
According to the Italian Navy, the contract for the construction of the European corvettes could be signed as early as 2025. The setting up of the first ship could instead take place in 2026 with delivery starting from 2030.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/fincantieri-navantia-e-naval-group-i-prossimi-passi-per-la-corvetta-europea/ on Sun, 05 Jun 2022 13:31:34 +0000.