Saudi Arabia to Purchase Five Corvettes for $2.1 Billion from Navantia

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has signed a contract with Spanish Navantia to purchase five Avante 2200 corvettes from Navantia for an approximate $2.1 billion.

The Government of Saudi Arabia has signed the contract for the construction of five corvettes, an operation that amounts to 1,800 million euros and represents the largest in the history of Spanish public shipyards with a foreign client, the company said in a statement last Thursday.

This contract, which has been negotiated with the kingdom of Saudi Arabia since 2015, will involve a global workload of around seven million hours for the shipyards of Bahía de Cádiz, Ría de Ferrol and Cartagena and its auxiliary industry.

The program will start at the end of 2018 and the last vessel will be delivered in 2022. In addition, Navantia will be responsible for Life Cycle Support for five years, from the delivery of the first vessel, with an option for an additional five years.

In addition to the corvette contract, Navantia has agreed with the Saudi state company SAMI (Saudi Arabian Military Industries) the creation of a Joint Venture (JV) in Saudi Arabia.

Navantia has supplied four Avante 3000 ships for the Spanish Navy and four Avante 2200 and Avante 1400 ships for the Venezuelan Navy.

The Avante 2200 corvette measures 98.9 meters in length, displace 2500 tons and has a maximum speed of 25 knots. It has a crew capacity of 92 and can accommodate a 10t class helicopter and deploy two rigid-hulled inflatable boats.