Damen Shipyards have an established track record delivering patrol craft to SA. It built the 82.9m environmental offshore patrol vessel (OPV) Sarah Baartman for the Department of the Environment and Tourism (DEAT) at its Romanian yard in 2003 and supervised the construction of three smaller, 46m, inshore patrol vessels for the same department at Farocean Marine in Cape Town.

That yard is now Damen Shipyards Cape Town and the Dutch group is hopeful that is sufficient pedigree to win the bid to build a new class of multi purpose OPVs for the SA Navy. Reports suggest an order of between six and 12 vessels (likely ten) next year under the project name “Biro.” Exports to other regional navies are also suggested.

Read more at: DefenceWeb