A concept graphic of the European Patrol Corvette on the EPC consortium's stand during Euronaval 2024. (Janes/Neil Dee)
Italian shipyard Fincantieri, French shipyard Naval Group, Spanish shipyard Navantia, and Naviris (a Fincantieri and Naval Group joint venture) have signed an initial consortium agreement for the second phase (Call 2) of the European Patrol Corvette (EPC)/Modular and Multirole Patrol Corvette (MMPC) programme.
The agreement was signed by the CEOs of the four companies at the Euronaval 2024 exhibition, held in Paris from 4 to 7 November. The consortium is also expected to be joined by Greek engineering company Hydrus.
Multimission
The agreement follows the initial MMPC Call 1 project from 2021 and aims to complete the design of the corvettes and integrate the ‘technological bricks' that will allow the ships to embark a variety of systems and payloads to perform an array of tasks and missions as required.
According to an information brochure on the EPC project shared during Euronaval, the second phase will move the EPC from a basic design to a production design, with the aims of completing the detailed ship design, developing platform prototypes, and integrating the selected technological bricks. The second phase includes the production of two prototypes of the corvettes – one Full Combat Multipurpose (FCM) variant and one Long Range Multipurpose (LRM) variant. The signing follows the award of further funding of EUR154.5 million (USD164.9 million) to the programme under the European Commission's European Defence Fund (EDF) earlier in 2024. Call 2 is to be managed by the Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation (OCCAR) on behalf of the European Commission.
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