Navantia construirá un patrullero para Marruecos

The Spanish Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, has announced at the San Fernando (Cadiz) shipyards that Navantia has won a contract with the Royal Navy of Morocco to design and build a deep-sea patrol vessel that will provide one million hours of work for the shipyards in the Bay of Cadiz and nearly 250 jobs over the next three and a half years.

He also recalled that the same shipyards will also be building the Underwater Intervention Maritime Action Ship (BAM-IS) for the Spanish Navy; all this while Montero visited the San Fernando shipyard accompanied by the President of Navantia, Belén Gualda.

The project with Morocco has had the institutional support of the Government and its success opens the door to the contracting of other similar units, which would mean more working hours and more employment for the naval industry.

In April Morocco announced the specifications of the contract for the construction of the patrol boat, in which shipyards from several countries expressed interest. For its part, Navantia submitted its bid in August and a team from the company travelled to Morocco to negotiate the technical and commercial aspects.

According to Navantia, since last September, contacts between Navantia and the Moroccan National Defence Administration have been ongoing to adapt all the ship's technical specifications to the requirements of its navy and to comply with the roadmap agreed in the negotiations.

The contract announced last Friday by the Minister of Finance includes the design of the ship. Thus, once the engineering work has been completed, construction will begin. 

Navantia has already supplied patrol boats and a corvette to the Royal Moroccan Navy in the 1980s and this contract is now back on track.

The high seas patrol boat is part of Navantia's Strategic Plan. It is a highly demanded vessel in the international sphere, with the consequent opportunities for export to other countries.