The European Patrol Corvette project - déjà vu?

Industrial defence project

Naviris, a 50/50 joint venture between the Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri and its French counterpart Naval Group, and the Spanish state-owned shipbuilding company Navantia signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on 12 February 2021 to confirm their industrial cooperation in the European Patrol Corvette (EPC) project, following the start of the initiative in mid-2019 and a number of consultations. Basically, the initial aim was to pool the labour-intensive and cost-intensive development and design work of the three successful shipyards, which compete in the same market segment but wanted to position themselves more cleverly in the global competition in future. Of course, the navies involved are only too happy to hear this. And now the subsidies from the EU's European Defence Fund (EDF) have been added to the mix!

EPC and PESCO

The European Patrol Corvette is an important naval initiative within the Permanent Structured Cooperation of the European Union (PESCO). Italy (lead partner), France, Spain, Greece and now also Portugal (observer), Denmark and Norway (co-financing) are participating in the programme. The EPC is intended to be "a smart, innovative, affordable, sustainable, interoperable and flexible ship" to fulfil future missions in the evolving global context of the mid-21st century. As a small surface combatant, it will perform second-line missions that maintain situational awareness, establish superiority and enable power projection, but also perform peacetime tasks such as combating piracy and smuggling, providing humanitarian aid, controlling migration and ensuring freedom of navigation.

European Patrol Corvette (EPC) - and open with conical mast. Graphic: Fincantieri

EPC and EDA

At the beginning of 2021, the European Defence Agency (EDA) announced that it had approved the start of concept work leading to the development of the European patrol corvette. The participating member states intend to produce their first corvette prototype in 2026-2027 (keel laying) - delivery from 2030.

Standard corvette - and diversity again!

The ship, based on the Fincantieri standard corvette, was initially to have a length of around 100 metres and a displacement of 3,000 tonnes and be able to replace several classes of ship in the near future, from patrol vessels to light frigates. In the meantime - as we all know - the aim of the working group seems to have expanded to a new "family of naval vessels" with a conventional hull but different dimensions, weapons and propulsion systems due to diverging national requirements. Three types are said to be under discussion: a patrol ship (Italy and Spain, successor requirement), a long-range ship (France, because of its overseas territories) and a combat version (Greece, capability gap). It's all been done before! After the last meeting within the framework of the EDA in March, the joint capability requirements will first be worked out so that everyone can come back to a common denominator.