Montenegro signed a contract for the acquisition of two OPV 60M Offshore Patrol Vessels built by the French shipyard Kership, the French Ministry of Armed Forces and Veterans announced at Euronaval 2024.
Built in Concarneau, the two OPVs will become – and by far – the biggest ships in service with a Montenegrin Navy mainly relying on Soviet-era fast attack crafts. Neither the costs nor the delivery schedule have been detailed.
“State support, in association with the Kership commercial contract, is carried out by the Directorate of Armament (Direction générale de l’armement – DGA) to the benefit of the Ministry of Defense of Montenegro. DGA’s support mainly consists in monitoring the general progress of the Kership commercial contract and the conducting, in France, of quality assurance following the methods in force within the DGA“
French Ministry of Defence
This contract is the material realization of the intergovernmental agreement on defense cooperation signed in Paris on April 3rd, 2024 by the French and Montenegrin MoDs, the service added.
Kership’s 60-meter-long OPV has a displacement of 620 tons and is designed for patrol, surveillance, trafic enforcement and special forces missions. According the French MoD, the project definition also includes capabilities to carry and deploy special forces via autonomous boats and drone-type equipment in order to extend the vessels range of action.
About OPV 60
Serving in the Senegalese navy, the OPV 60 is KERSHIP’s answer to law enforcement operations at sea with increased flexibility, high endurance, improved seakeeping behavior, robust construction, and high firepower.
Meeting operational requests, and benefiting from KERSHIP’s expertise in shipbuilding and system integration, the OPV 60 is the ideal compact solution to ensure surveillance in coastal and EEZ waters with true combat capabilities.
The OPV 60 is an optimized naval asset, with military capabilities that enable it to cover the full spectrum of law enforcement at sea missions and contribute to territorial maritime defense.
Specifications:
- Length: 62.2m
- Width: 9.5m
- Displacement: 620 tons
- Endurance: 5000 nautical miles, 21 days
