Malta — Malta Welcomes New Patrol Boat Fleet

Austal has com­plet­ed its first Euro­pean defence con­tract fol­low­ing the com­mis­sion­ing of four 21.2 metre inshore patrol craft for the Armed Forces of Mal­ta (AFM).

Austal’s 21.2 metre inshore patrol plat­form is a fast and ver­sa­tile plat­form designed for coastal sur­veil­lance and search and res­cue. Source: Austal

Source: Austal

The alu­mini­um ves­sels have a max­i­mum speed of more than 26 knots and will assist the AFM with sur­veil­lance and bor­der pro­tec­tion through­out Malta’s coastal waters. 

Speak­ing at the his­toric com­mis­sion­ing cer­e­mo­ny held on March 18, Mal­tese Prime Min­is­ter Lawrence Gonzi (pic­tured) described the ves­sels as “the pride of the Mar­itime Squadron’s fleet.” 

“The mod­ern and cut­ting-edge tech­nol­o­gy cou­pled with the best accom­mo­da­tion facil­i­ties will also pro­vide a bet­ter work­ing envi­ron­ment for the crew,” Prime Min­is­ter Gonzi said. 

“The patrol boats were pur­pose­ly built and cus­tomised in line with the Squadron’s requirements.” 

Austal was award­ed the con­tract in Feb­ru­ary 2009 fol­low­ing a com­pet­i­tive inter­na­tion­al ten­der process, which called for a proven design that addressed spe­cif­ic AFM require­ments. The project was co-financed by the Euro­pean Union’s Exter­nal Border’s Fund. 

AFM Lieu­tenant Colonel Mar­tin Sam­mut com­mend­ed Austal for their will­ing­ness to ensure client satisfaction. 

“Austal’s pro­fes­sion­al­ism has made it pos­si­ble for all four ves­sels to be com­plet­ed on time. Fur­ther­more their con­tin­ued assis­tance is tes­ti­mo­ny of their intent to seal this suc­cess­ful part­ner­ship,” Lt Col Sam­mut said. 

The four ves­sels were built at Austal’s West­ern Aus­tralian facil­i­ty and deliv­ered to Mal­ta via liftship. 

Austal Direc­tor – Sales and Aus­tralian Oper­a­tions, Andrew Bel­lamy said the suc­cess­ful deliv­ery of Austal’s first Euro­pean defence con­tract was a proud achievement. 

“We are pleased to deliv­er these state-of-the-art ves­sels and look for­ward to them serv­ing the AFM for many years to come,” Mr Bel­lamy said. 

“This project illus­trates Austal’s abil­i­ty to deliv­er qual­i­ty cus­tomised solu­tions with­in time­frames that would be beyond most ship­builders, includ­ing those offer­ing stan­dard­ised pro­duc­tion designs.” 

Austal also recent­ly deliv­ered six 30 metre patrol boats for the Trinidad and Toba­go Coast Guard, fol­low­ing deliv­er­ies to Yemen, Kuwait and the Roy­al Aus­tralian Navy. Work on the sec­ond of two 127 metre US Navy Lit­toral Com­bat Ships (LCS) con­tin­ues at Austal’s US facility. 

Ves­sel Review

Source: Austal

Austal’s 21.2 metre inshore patrol plat­form is a fast and ver­sa­tile plat­form designed for coastal sur­veil­lance and search and res­cue. The all-alu­mini­um mono­hull pro­vides enhanced crew hab­it­abil­i­ty, manoeu­vra­bil­i­ty and fuel effi­cien­cy across var­i­ous oper­at­ing conditions. 

An ele­vat­ed fly bridge pro­vides opti­mal vis­i­bil­i­ty dur­ing near-range oper­a­tions. The ves­sel is equipped with fire fight­ing capa­bil­i­ty via a fire mon­i­tor on the aft fly­bridge deck, along­side two 7.62mm light machine gun mounts. Mount­ing for one 12.7mm heavy machine gun is posi­tioned near the vessel’s bow. 

Two sep­a­rate ameni­ties blocks are locat­ed either side of the main board­ing entry. Their acces­si­bil­i­ty from the out­side main aft deck enables non-crew use with­out enter­ing the vessel’s main inter­nal areas. 

Adding to the platform’s ver­sa­til­i­ty is a bilge man­i­fold locat­ed above the main aft deck, which can per­form sal­vage pump­ing of anoth­er ves­sel if need­ed. A stern launch­ing ramp allows the safe deploy­ment and retrieval of a rigid hull inflat­able boat and dive oper­a­tions are sup­port­ed via low-to-the-water plat­forms locat­ed aft. 

A gal­ley and crew mess are locat­ed in the low­er deck, along with two 2‑berth cab­ins each with lock­ers and bench. A four-berth cab­in is locat­ed in the vessel’s bow, along with addi­tion­al lock­er stor­age space. 

Pow­er­ing the ves­sel are two MAN D2842 LE410 diesel engines, each pro­duc­ing 809kW at 2100 rpm and dri­ving fixed pitch pro­pellers. Aux­il­iary engines con­sist of two Cum­mins MDKBUs. 

The AFM ves­sels are classed by DNV with X1A1 LC R2 Patrol notation. 

PRINCIPAL PARTICULARS
Length over­all: 21.2 metres
Length (water­line): 17.8 metres
Beam (mould­ed): 5.5 metres
Depth (mould­ed): 2.8 metres
Hull draft (max­i­mum): 1.83 metres
Crew Accom­mo­da­tion: 8
Max­i­mum dead­weight: 6 tonnes
Fuel: (min­i­mum): 5,000 litres
Main engines: 2 x MAN D2842 LE410, 2 x 809kW @ 2100rpm
Gear­box­es: 2 x ZF 3000 A
Propul­sion: 2 x fixed pitch pro­pellers
Speed: More than 26 knots
Clas­si­fi­ca­tion: DNV, +1A1 HSLC R2 Patrol, or oth­er equivalent 

Source: Austal

Text- / Bildquelle (source): Austal
Ansprech­part­ner / con­tact:
Phone: 61 8 9410 1111
Fax: 61 8 9410 2564
Email: pubrel@austal.com