Philippines Coast Guard will receive a new 82 m offshore patrol vessel (OPV) by around 2016

Photo - OCEA

Janes is reporting that French shipbuilder OCEA the Philippines Coast Guard will receive a new 82 m offshore patrol vessel (OPV) by around 2016, A EUR90 million (USD113 million) contract for five vessels from France was announced by Philippine coastguard chief Rear Admiral Luis Tuason in 2012.

OCEA confirmed that four OCEA 24 m FPB 72 patrol boats similar to units delivered to Nigeria and Surinam would partly fulfil this requirement, although whether the final vessel would be a larger OPV was still to be finalised at that time.

The larger unit is now confirmed to be based on the company's new OPV 270, with the baseline design featuring an aluminium hull with twin diesel propulsion for speeds of more than 25 kt.