Page 27: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (June 1994)

yards in order to concentrate on the construction of larger ships, origi- nally made its name with the pro- lific production of North Sea off- shore support vessels. Two such vessels among the latest from the production line are noteworthy— claimed to be the first to fully inte- grate dynamic positioning and

ECDIS systems. Built for Farstad

AS for use on the Shell Draugen field, Far Grip and Far Fosna at 244-ft (74.5-m) combine anchor han- dling and supply capabilities with

ROV deployment, oil recovery and emergency accommodation for 250 survivors.

Military Vessels

Increased stability in Eastern

Europe (Yugoslavia apart) has had a marked effect in the military sec- tor. For once, the politicians ap- pear to have listened to the elector- ate and most governments have cut defense budgets, although in naval terms this has simply reduced the size of vessels being built—nothing bigger than frigates. Turkey is having four 380-ft. (116.72-m) craft built, two at Blohm + Voss in Ger- many and two at the country's own

Golcuk yard. France, Italy and the

U.K. have joined forces to form a project to develop a 459-ft. (140-m) frigate design with the U.K. requir- ing 12 vessels to replace the Type 42 destroyers with the other two nations requiring four each. Spain and the Netherlands, originally in the project with the 'big' three, are now jointly looking at a less ambi- tious proposal. Abu Dhabi is known to be in the market for frigates and the U.K.'s Vosper Thornycroft,

Bazan in Spain, DCN in France and

Lurssen in Germany are likely to be the front runners.

More typical of the current scene, however, is the plethora of smaller patrol and other military craft or- ders being placed on European builders with more, it seems, on the way. Finnyards is building a 190- ft. (58-m) multi-role patrol boat for the Finnish Frontier Guard, Vosper is building a 154-ft. (47-m) fast pa- trol craft capable of 40 knots for

Greek waters and Kvaerner Mandal is in the midst of a contract to build nine mine countermeasure vessels for the Norwegian Navy.

Karlskronavarvet has signed up with the Swedish Defence Material

Adminstration to build four 118-ft. (36-m) inshore mine sweepers and the same customer has ordered a further 30 wateijet-propelled strike craft from Dockstavarvet. French builders Leroux & Lotz have just handed over a 177-ft. (54-m) alu- minium patrol vessel to Mauritania and compatriots CMN have two similar craft under construction for the French Navy. The Italian Cus- toms has ordered 15 patrol boats with surface piercing propellers from Moschini in Italy. Trials with two identical 54-ft. (16.5-m) proto- types proved a superior 54-knot per- formance from the chosen propul- sion system over waterjets.

Vosper Thornycroft, a pioneer in the use of GRP in minehunters, is awaiting funding from Saudi Arabia to complete the second half of a six

June, 1994 vessel contract for 173-ft. (52.7-m)

Sandown Class minehunters. HMS

Bridport, another Sandown Class, is the last in the current series for the

Royal Navy although the U.K. Min- istry of Defence is to issue an invita- tion to tender for a further seven and as Vosper holds the molds, it must be in with a good chance. Vosper is also producing four 184-ft. (56-m) strike craft for Qatar and two 272-ft. (83- m) corvettes for Oman.

Sentinel, the latest version of

Vosper's Island Class, the 'parent' to the 49 Bollinger built 108-ft. (33- m) USCG patrol vessels, has been delivered to U.K. Customs & Excise with some enhancements, the most significant being the introduction of a PP waterjet driven by a 400 kW

Perkins diesel engine on the centerline to provide improved slow speed maneuverability and an eco- nomical loiter capability up to nine knots.

Halmatic, another U.K. yard well known for fast patrol boats up to 98 ft. (30 m), has developed a 77-ft. (23.5-m) 'mother and daughter' ver- sion with Protector III, built for fish- ery protection duties on the English north east coast. A stern ramp allows the rapid deployment and recovery of a 22-ft. (6.7-m) rigid hull, foam collar daughter craft in up to Sea State 5 and Force 6 winds.

Although the mother craft in this first example has a top speed of 27 knots, Halmatic envisages a big

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