What patrol vessels will Rheinmetall build at the Mangalia shipyard for nearly €1 billion from SAFE. Details of on-board weapon systems and sensors
The second largest military procurement through the SAFE program for Romania will be awarded to Rheinmetall for around 920 million euros: to build four ships and save and revitalize, in the process, the Mangalia shipyard – 2 May. HotNews learned details about the ships that Romania will have to receive ready for operation in less than four years.
In the final list of projects with SAFE financing, presented on Tuesday by the Minister of Defense Radu Miruță and later approved by the Parliament, no less than 5.7 billion, out of the total 8.33 billion subject to approval, will be contracted with the German company Rheinmetall.
The biggest contract, worth 2.6 billion euros, goes to the production in the country at Automecanica Mediaș of 232 infantry fighting vehicles model KF-41 Lynx, and the second big package for Rheinmetall is the construction of ships at the Mangalia shipyard.
The “token” that will save the Mangalia shipyard
More precisely, it is about two intervention vessels for divers (87 million euros) and two patrol vessels (836 million euros). The contracts will be signed with NVL BV & Co. KG (Lürssen) / Rheinmetall Naval Systems.
“The four patrol ships will be produced at the Naval shipyard in Mangalia – May 2, being the token that saves this shipyard. The shipyard will be modernized and managed by those from Rheinmetall,” Minister Miruță said in a press conference on Tuesday.
Asked how the two patrol ships that Rheinmetall will produce in Mangalia for 836 million euros differ from the two patrol ships built in Bulgaria for about 500 million euros, Miruță did not give exact details, but said that “the ships cannot be compared.”
“We have more efficient electronic equipment required, we have more efficient on-board guns, we have more efficient radars, we have more efficient surface-to-air missiles, all this means some extra money,” said Miruță.
Which ship model will be produced in Romania
However, HotNews industry sources have indicated that the model of patrol vessels (OPV) that will be purchased and produced in Romania is similar to the one produced for Bulgaria, a patrol vessel based on the NVL (Naval Vessels Lürssen, part of the Rheinmetall group) MMPV 90 (Multipurpose Modular Patrol Vessel) design.
The builder, on his own presentation page, equates the ship model with a corvette.
The MMPV 90 vessel has a length of 90 meters, a displacement between 2,100 and 2,300 tons, an operational range of up to 3,000 nautical miles. The ship features a heliport deck at the rear and a helicopter hangar, and can be equipped with a wider suite of sensors and weapon systems.
For Romania, the same sources say that the exact model could vary slightly in terms of specifications depending on the features contracted at the end.
What sensors and weapon systems will the Romanian OPVs have on boardYOU
Sources close to the negotiations with Rheinmetall confirmed to HotNews that the patrol vessel will still be equipped and armed more like a corvette. Some elements of the final configuration, however, have not been finalized yet.
On the radar side, Thales solutions will be chosen, and the ship will have both a keel-mounted sonar and a towed one for underwater surveillance and detection – but HotNews sources could not yet indicate the provenance of this equipment.
On the Combat Management System (CMS) side, the most likely candidate will be Tacticos, developed by Thales, according to HotNews sources.
On the armament side, the future Romanian OPV will have a 76mm Oto Melara gun, and in the rear a 35mm Oerlikon Millennium close air defense (CIWS) gun.
On the missile side, the ship will be equipped with a RIM-116C RAM (Rolling Airframe Missile) missile launcher, from the German company RAM-System GmbH (RAMSYS). In its newest variant, the RAM missiles have an air target engagement range of about 9 km and a claimed success rate of 95%.
A RAM launcher has 21 missiles and can rotate 360 degrees. According to the manufacturer's official presentation, such a launcher can be mounted on the front deck, behind the onboard cannon.
The ship will also be equipped with German-made torpedoes and countermeasures systems, but will not come equipped with anti-ship missile systems from the start.
These will be installed later and will be of the NSM (Naval Strike Missile) type, another separate contract in the SAFE list.
The ships will be completed and handed over to MApN in 2030, and, according to Minister Miruță, the penalties in the contract for non-compliance with the deadlines will be higher than the value of the contract itself.
“If they don't do that, they will pay penalties higher than the value of the contract. The news that they can't fulfill a contract at the biggest shipyard in Europe could hurt the company on the stock market by more than the loss it will have in Romania. It makes me think that Rheinmetall is financially driven to complete this request. Furthermore, Rheinmetall said that the shipyard there is too big to produce only military ships and proposed to have contracts with the military area and with another company in the civilian area,” said Miruță on Tuesday at the press conference.
