EDEX 2025 – Alexandria Shipyards starts working on the new PV 43 patrol vessel
Aiming at improving its capabilities to operate in coastal waters the Egyptian navy recently ordered 10 PV 43 patrol vessels to Alexandria Shipyard, ASY in short, which officially started the programme in September this year
As with many other major naval programmes, ASY cooperates with foreign partners to improve Egypt capabilities in the naval domain while providing the Egyptian Navy with state of the art vessels. This has been the case with the Gowind corvettes with French Naval Group, three out of the four having been produced in Egypt, all of the now delivered. The next programme was the acquisition of four Meko A200 frigates, three of them built by ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems while the last is in the very last fitting out phase at ASY, delivery being forecasted within 6-8 months.
The next cooperation programme sees ASY working with Naval Vessels Lürssen, the Alexandria-based company having received an order from the Egyptian Navy for 10 43 metres long patrol vessels, known as PV 43. These are based on the Croatian Navy’s OOB-31 Omiš-class design.
This ship has a maximum beam of 8 metres, a design draught of metres and a gross tonnage of 24 knots. Powered by two diesel engines driving two shafts, it can reach a maximum speed of 27 knots at full load. At 15 knots its range is of 1,100 nautical miles.
Designed for maritime surveillance, reconnaissance, search and rescue (SAR), and the protection of critical infrastructure, their armament consists of a bow-mounted 30 mm remotely operated turret, and two 12.7 mm remotely operated turret, one on each side at the rear of the superstructure. Beside the above missions, Egyptian PV 43 will also be capable to support military operations, as at stern we could see two twin-launchers for surface-to-surface antiship missiles, possibly the Exocet, as the Egyptian Navy has in service on its new combatant vessels MBDA’s MM40 Block 3 Exocet.
Compared to the original design Egypt requested a modification to allow installing those missiles; the ship was designed with a slipway allowing to launch a sizeable rigid-hull inflatable boat. This provision was cancelled, the stern being now fully exploitable for installing weaponry, a small size RHIB being hosted on the starboard side, capable to host up to five Special Forces operators.
The steel cut of the first PV 43 took place in Alexandria a few months ago, the delivery of the first ship being planned within 2026, the contract requiring that all 10 vessels will be delivered to the Egyptian Navy within five years from signature.
Photos by P. Valpolini
