Navantia, Fincantieri and Naval Group seal collaboration on future European corvette

The European Union's first major naval project has already begun. Its name is the European Patrol Corvette (EPC) and its launching on paper took place at the Euronaval show, which is taking place from 18 to 21 October in Paris. 

Also known as the Modular and Multirole Patrol Corvette (MMPC), the chief executives of the major national shipyards of Italy (Fincantieri), France (Naval Group) and Spain (Navantia) have joined forces to realise a family of small warships, based on increasing their collaboration and obtaining the maximum degree of industrial synergies.  

What Pierroberto Folgiero (Fincantieri), Pierre Éric Pommelet (Naval Group) and Ricardo Domínguez (Navantia) have just agreed in Paris is an initial commitment to establish a consortium that will cooperatively define the major external and internal configurations of a single ship. In this way, they want to shape a platform halfway between a corvette and an ocean-going patrol vessel which, with the fewest possible modifications and costs, each of the shipyards can adapt to the specific needs of their respective navies.

The project is based on collaboration between the French Marine Nationale, the Italian Marina Militare and the Spanish Navy, whose sailors and naval engineers have spent several years immersed in different working groups to conceive the general lines of a warship model for the next 40 years.  

The development of the new corvette, which the Greek Navy has joined, is under the framework of the Permanent Structured Cooperation - better known as PESCO -, a mechanism established by Brussels in 2017 to facilitate multinational collaboration in programmes to obtain new weapons systems.

On the military side, the project is coordinated by the Italian Navy. On the industrial side, responsibility lies with Naviris, a company formed in equal parts by Fincantieri and Naval Group. In July, Naviris was awarded 60 million euros from the European Defence Fund to study the ship's outlines, an amount that will be distributed among the Spanish shipyard Navantia, the French Naval Group, the Italian Fincantieri, six Greek companies, two Norwegian companies and one Danish company.  

What exactly does the EPC project consist of? The four partner countries are seeking to develop and build a type of ship that can perform maritime surveillance and security missions in low-intensity scenarios, as well as humanitarian assistance and emergency relief operations in the event of disasters on land. 

On the technological and economic levels, the governments of Athens, Madrid, Paris and Rome also want to reinforce European sovereignty in the military field, strengthen the European defence industry and avoid duplication of investment and expenditure on weapons systems. Once the project moves beyond the initial industrial phase, a total of 40 companies from 12 EU nations will be directly involved.

The four navies have agreed that it will be a modular monohull vessel with a maximum displacement of around 3,000 tonnes and a length of 110 metres. It will have a flight deck and hangar aft to accommodate a helicopter and a space to deploy and operate fixed- or rotary-wing drones. And it will be able to accommodate just over a hundred personnel, including aircrew and technicians. The weapons and technology on board? Missiles, cannons and electronic equipment to suit each naval force. 

When will the European corvette become a reality? The study phase is now officially underway. As this is an international cooperation project, it is expected that the contract for the construction of the first ships will be signed around the middle of this decade and the delivery of the first unit of the series around 2030.

Navy sources have confirmed that Spain's participation in the EPC project aims to "fill the gap left by the six Descubierta class corvettes converted into offshore patrol vessels". With a displacement of some 1,500 tons, only the P-77 Infanta Cristina remains operational, although it is scheduled to be decommissioned in 2023.  

A few days ago, on 9 October, her sister ship, the P-76 Infanta Elena, which had been in service for 43 years, said goodbye. On her last voyage, she called at the ports of Cádiz, Palma de Mallorca and Alicante for several open days.

The Navy also hopes that the European corvettes will replace the four 1,100-tonne displacement Serviola-class patrol vessels, commissioned between 1991 and 1992 and which will have been in service for more than 30 years by the 2030s, at the beginning of the next decade. 

For its part, the Italian navy is interested in replacing its four small offshore patrol vessels of the Comandanti class from the early 2000s and in renewing its two coastal patrol vessels, all of which have a displacement of around 1,500 tonnes.

The French Marine Nationale is to replace between 2030 and 2034 its six 3,000-ton Floreal-class surveillance frigates, which entered service between 1990 and 1993 and are the main instrument with which Paris exercises sovereignty in its overseas territories.

The case of the Greek navy is different. Athens wants to maintain a degree of military balance with neighbouring Turkey and intends to replace its nine small patrol boats, four of the Laskos class - dating from the 1980s - and five of the Kavaloudis class from the previous decade, all derived from French speedboats.