The proposals of the Italian Fincantieri for Doha and the Dutch Damen for Sigma10514 close the circle of the three big favorites for the second large armament program of the Navy after that of the frigates.
Within the next week the Navy is waiting for the new and as everything shows final proposals of both the Italians and the Dutch for the new corvettes of the Fleet. Last week was preceded by the French proposal of Naval Group for Gowind, about which the Naval Staff and the General Directorate of Defense Equipment and Investments were informed in detail. The proposals of the Italian Fincantieri for Doha and the Dutch Damen for Sigma10514 close the circle of the three big favorites for the second large armament program of the Navy after that of the frigates.
Italians and Dutch already know the French proposal and are expected to make the raise in order to get the advantage since so far Naval Group seems to have the first say in the case of corvettes. However, the “race” remains completely open, as the Navy Officers emphasize, since all the parameters are constantly changing, starting with the involvement of the Greek shipyards in the program. Where it seems that the Scaramanga shipyards have a very strong lead and all the “suitors” seem to have approached them for cooperation.
According to information, the French proposal which provides for the construction of a Gowind in the shipyards of Lorient and the other three in Greece reaches 2 billion euros. However, the involvement of the Greek shipyards still leaves open issues not only for the French proposal but also for the rest. The French together with the proposal for Gowind presented to the Navy their own file for the modernization of the four frigates MEKO class “HYDRA”. It reportedly contains a combination of proposals that differ in both the number of ships to be upgraded and the tactical combat system proposed by either Setis or Tacticos.
But unlike the corvette program for the frigate modernization program, the French are not said to be the favorite. The information states that the Germans of the manufacturer MEKO TKMS in collaboration with Thales Netherlands and the Americans of Lockheed Martin have the advantage here. With LM having essentially withdrawn from claiming the corvette program and now focusing on modernizing MEKO.
In the next few days, the proposals of both TKMS / Thales and Lockheed Martin are expected, which are said to include the modernization of all four ships in Greek shipyards, where in this case, too, Scaramangas has a great advantage. The modernization program of MEKO has been limited to 500 cm and as everything shows, it will not be related to that of the new corvettes.
The Navy has set next June as the dead line time frame in order to have all the proposals on the table for both the corvettes and the MEKO in order to evaluate them and bring them to the attention of the political leadership which will also have the last word in the final decision.
