Navantia has launched the third of four economic zone patrol boats (PVOZEE), named Yekuana and christened by Lorena López de Toro, at the San Fernando-Puerto Real shipyard.
This ship is the third of a series of four that Navantia is building for the Venezuelan Navy. Construction started in December 2008 and the keel laying took place last September.
The PVOZEE has a length of 98.90m, a displacement of 2,200t and a maximum speed of 25kn. Its missions will include the control of the economic exclusive zone, search and rescue as well as anti-air, anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare.
More patrol ships for the Venezuelan Navy
Navantia has also commissioned the first of a series of four offshore patrol boats (BVL) to the Venezuelan Navy, launched in October 2008 and named Guaicamacuto.
Present at both ceremonies were, among others, the second Chief of Venezuelan Navy, Vice Admiral Jaime Toro, the Venezuelan ambassador to Spain, Julián Isaís Rodríguez, Navantia president Aurelio Martínez Estévez and the San Fernando-Puerto Real shipyard’s general manager Fernando Miguélez.
The BVL has a length of 79.90m and the capacity to displace 1,500t and reach a maximum speed of 22kn. More than 90 international companies have collaborated in the construction and supplying of this ship.
The ships will be able to carry out a wide variety of missions such as:
- Coastal surveillance and protection
- Protection of maritime traffic
- Health assistance to other ships
- External fire fighting
- Control and reduction of marine pollution
- Transport of personnel and provisions
- Search and rescue operations
- Rapid intervention
- Frogmen support
- Surface defence
- Passive electronic warfare
The contract for these eight patrol boats, the construction of which will generate 5 million work hours (1,456,900 for Navantia and 3,580,700 for auxiliary industries), was signed on 28 November 2005. The deliveries are scheduled to take place between March 2010 and the end of 2011.