The patrol vessels are intended to join the Ukrainian State Border Guard Service. Although designed by a French company, the patrol boats are supposed to be armed by local companies. The production is expected to start this year.
For the record, the only shipyard able to work with marine aluminum in Ukraine and in which ships of this class were made, was the Feodosiya plant, but this one is currently located in Crimea. So, to manufacture the 5 ships out of the 20 planned, the Ukrainian Home Office had to choose another company and Nibulon shipbuilding has been selected.
Ukrainian and French governments were negotiating for the joint production of 20 FPB 98 patrol boats designed by the OCEA shipyard in June 2019. The Government of Ukraine finally gave its green light for the procurement of the patrol vessels in November.
In addition to the production and supply of ships, the project consists in a comprehensive service offer which includes training of 240 crew members and 120 technical personnel, spare parts and tools required for maintenance during 2 years of operation (or 2400 hours), and technical support in Ukraine within 60 months from the date of delivery of the first ship.
The contract value is € 136.5 million. It includes « partial financing from loans from both commercial banks and from the Treasury loan of the Ministry of Finance of France. The loan is provided by the state of France. Ukraine will 15% from the budget, while the remaining 85% will be provided by the loan, » explained the Ukrainian Minister of Internal Affairs. France offered a comprehensive approach to credit financing and agreed to localize 25% of the production in Ukraine.
About OCEA FPB 98 Patrol Boat
OCEA’s 32 meters-long FPB 98 patrol vessel has a crew complement of 13 sailors and features a maximum speed of 30 knots.
The French shipyard has sold a number of FPB 98 ships around the world, including to Benin, Suriname and Nigeria. Algeria recently started taking delivery of an additional batch of 10 boats after having received 21 FPB 98 vessels between 2008 and 2012.
