Navantia expands the scope of corvette life cycle support in Saudi Arabia
Spain’s premier naval shipbuilder Navantia has signed a Follow-on Support Contract for services associated to the life cycle support of the first batch of five corvettes that have been delivered to Saudi Arabia. The contract has been signed with the Ministry of Defense of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia – with a duration of five years.
The contract is an increase of the life cycle support services that Navantia is currently providing since the commissioning of the first AVANTE 2200 (Al Jubail class) corvette in 2022. This new agreement includes an increment of a number of additional technicians for the platform and combat system maintenance and support services, to be executed at King Faisal Naval Base in Jeddah. Additionally, this contract includes the supply of spare parts for the five corvettes. In 2018, Navantia signed an agreement with the Royal Saudi Naval Forces (RSNF) for the production and delivery of five AVANTE 2200 corvettes.
The agreement also comprises a localisation plan that includes a number of activities, such as training, transfer of knowledge or spare parts to be produced in the Kingdom, among others, as part of the localisation commitment with Saudi Arabia, reflecting Navantia’s compromise to continue with the development of the sustainment capabilities of the RSNF.
Clear mission to fulfil
The number of corvette-type combatants in the world’s inventories is increasing. Naval fleets are highlighting the need for combatants with a high level of modularity and long endurance. Modern corvettes offer capabilities of larger warships but at substantially lower cost in construction, manpower and maintenance. During crisis or wartime, corvettes perform in a variety of missions, including surveillance and reconnaissance, missile strikes against enemy surface ships and coastal installations, anti-amphibious defence, as well as escort of larger surface combatants. This is in clear contrast to operations other than war (OOTW), when a typical corvette role includes coastal patrol and surveillance within the EEZ (exclusive economic zone) and SLOC (sea lines of communication). Here, the corvette fulfils important tasks. Saudi Arabia’s AVANTE 2200 corvette ranks among the most sophisticated combatants for any of these tasks in the future.
AVANTE 2200 – Saudi Arabia’s multi-talent fort he unpredictable naval environment
The Al Jubail class corvettes are based on the proven AVANTE 2200 design. The multi-mission combatants are adapted to the requirements of Saudi Arabia, offering advanced performance, excellent seakeeping, high survivability and the capability to operate in extreme high temperatures such as in the Arabian Gulf region. The contract for the construction of five corvettes came into force in November 2018 and, since the launching of this first unit – Al Jubail (828) in July 2020 – Navantia launched the five units with a cadence of four months between each of them, achieving this milestone in a record time of three years.