Navantia Delivers Corvette AL-DIRIYAH to Royal Saudi Naval Forces
Navantia delivered the second of the five corvettes built for the Royal Saudi Navy Forces (RSNF) in its shipyards at the Bay of Cadiz, the construction 547, named AL-DIRIYAH, in a ceremony held at its San Fernando facilities on July 26, 2022.
Hosted by Navantia's Chairman and CEO, Ricardo Dominguez, the ceremony was attended by the commander of RSNF, Vice Admiral Fahad Bin Abdullah Al-Ghofaily; SAMI CEO, Mr. Walid Abukhaled; Spanish Secretary of State for Defense, Ms. María Amparo Valcarce; Spanish Navy Procurement Director, Admiral Aniceto Rosique and other local authorities. AL-DIRIYAH has been delivered to the Royal Saudi Navy three years after its first cut of steel (May 2019), meeting demanding deadlines despite the health pandemic and global supply stress. The Corvette is one of the most competitive and capable vessels in its segment, as it has been confirmed in the sea trials undergone in the Bay of Cadiz.
The commissioning ceremony took place in accordance with military protocol. An inspection commission (made up of members of RSNF and Navantia) has boarded the corvette to carry out the mandatory review. In the end, the ship's flag was raised, after which the Saudi Navy transferred command of the corvette to the commander of AL-DIRIYAH. Navantia Chairman has given Vice Admiral Al-Ghofaily the ship's bell as a ceremonial gift. In the event, Vice Admiral Al-Ghofaily highlighted that "Alsarawat and many other RSNF ambitious acquisition programs are a clear commitment of the Royal Saudi Naval Forces toward fulfilling the strategic goals of the kingdom vision 2030 by creating a new era of sophisticated and efficient Naval capabilities to face the challenges of today and tomorrow while increasing the strength of National domestic military industry".
The AL-DIRIYAH corvette has a length of 104 meters, a beam of 14, and seating for a total of 102 people between crew and passengers. The contract for the construction of five corvettes entered into force in November 2018, and, since the launch of the first unit (July 2020), Navantia launched the five units within a period of four months between each one of them, which meant achieving this milestone in a record time of three years. The corvettes are based on the AVANTE 2200 design, adapted to the requirements of the RSNF, offering advanced performance, excellent work at sea, high survivability, and the ability to operate in extreme temperatures. Simultaneously, around 500 crew members of these corvettes are completing the education and training process at the Navantia Training Centre (NTC) in San Fernando.
In addition to the corvette contract, Navantia agreed with SAMI (Saudi Arabian Military Industries) to create a joint venture in Saudi Arabia, an alliance that allows Navantia to position its integrated systems and technologically advanced solutions in the Arab market and area of influence and is aligned with the company's internationalization strategy. The contract assumes a global workload of around seven million hours and 6,000 jobs over five years. Of these, more than 1,100 are direct employees, more than 1,800 collaborating industry employees (more than a hundred companies participate in the program), and more than 3,000 indirect employees are generated by other suppliers.
The program includes, in addition to construction, the Life Cycle Support for five years from the delivery of the first ship, with an option for another five additional years, the last ship of which must be delivered in 2024. It also includes providing various services, such as integrated logistics support, operational and maintenance training, provision of Education and Training Centres for the Combat System and Platform Control System of ships, Life Cycle Support, and ship maintenance systems at the Jeddah Naval Base.
