Warships made in Abu Dhabi to be sold abroad

The National, UAE ^ | Feb 16, 2012 | David Black

[sukhoi-30mki]

Warships made in Abu Dhabi to be sold abroad

Abu Dhabi Ship Building (ADSB) is in advanced talks to secure orders for its new Baynunah class of multipurpose missile corvettes from other regional navies.

"The Baynunah class is a unique and very sophisticated warship and it has attracted the attention of a number of navies in the region and around the world," Mohamed Salem Al Junaibi, the ADSB chief executive, said after the launch of the Mezyad, the fourth ship in the class at ADSB's yard yesterday.

He declined to name the interested navies, but it is already known that the Saudi Arabian navy has embarked on a US$20 billion(Dh73.46bn)-plus expansion programme and is said to be considering the purchase of up to a dozen new warships.

The Kuwaiti navy is also understood to be a potential customer according to the Defense News journal, based in the US.

The Mezyad is one of six new corvettes, first ordered by the UAE Navy in 2004, and expected to be in service by 2014. The programme, worth Dh4bn, is the largest and most important contract for ADSB to date.

Under the contract, the first of the class was designed by both ADSB and the French shipbuilder Constructions Mecaniques de Normandie (CMN) and built at CMN's yard in Cherbourg. The five remaining ships are being built and completed by ADSB at its yard in Mussaffah in Abu Dhabi under a technology transfer arrangement between the two companies.

The 72-metre long Baynunah class has been designed to replace the UAE Navy's 33.5-metre Ardhana class large patrol class vessels in the patrol and surveillance role in the country's territorial waters and exclusive economic zone. But they will also be capable of minelaying, interception and other anti-surface warfare operations.

Their design also incorporates a stealthy superstructure, a helicopter landing deck and a hangar and the ships are being equipped with the latest weapons and surveillance technology that is being integrated by the sub-contractor Selex, formerly Marconi Systems.

Its shallow draught allows the corvette to operate easily in inshore waters, and the class is being seen as a much more economic alternative to the US-designed littoral combat ship concept being offered by Lockheed Martin and Austal USA since mid-2008.

"The Baynunah Corvette Class, which is the largest warship construction programme and a first-of-its-kind project in the region will significantly boost the arsenal of the UAE Navy and enable it to effectively fulfil its duty of protecting the UAE's maritime territory," Mr Al Junaibi said. He also used the launch to announce the completion of a 155-metre extension to the yard's fitting-out quay to accommodate an expansion of ADSB's refitting and maintenance business.

The shipyard already has two construction halls equipped with overhead cranes. The shipyard facilities also include two shiplift piers for berthing and ship repair.

david.black@thenational.ae

[sukhoi-30mki]

[maine yankee]

“Arab labor”

[MasterGunner01]

The design is of foreign origin as are all of the combat systems and armament and machinery. Abu Dhabi may be assembling these ships from modules, but the ship is NOT an indigenous design from the keel upwards.

[sukhoi-30mki]

Of course, that’s not surprising since this is their first major project. However, there are very few nations which provide ‘complete’ defense solutions nowadays. A lot of major nations (Germany, UK, Spain, South Korea, India, Japan to name a few) source design assistance, engines/machinery, sensors or weaponry for their warships from overseas.

[MasterGunner01]

Quite right on the foreign sources. There are many good, even great designs, by various manufacturers.

Our own USN could learn a lot from these designs, but the NIH [not invented here] mindset has complete and unfettered control over NavSea and USN planning. The current LCS [Littoral Combat Ship] fiasco is merely the tip of this institutional iceberg in the USN and DoD.

[stevie_d_64]

Yep, very modular design...
I see they are still using the RAM air defense system there...Good spot, good coverage, no need to manuever much to unmask the battery...

That gun looks to be that (is it a Scandinavian design?) 57mm I believe...A very good gun system...

Looks stealthy...And are those Exocet SSM/ASM launchers (boxes)??? amidships???

This hull design doesn’t tell me much about any innovative manuevering or speed advantage over anything else out there right now either...

But still, if I could afford one, I’d put a fighting chair back aft and go trolling for Marlin sometime...I wouldn’t refuse the keys to one in the price was right...

[sukhoi-30mki]

http://www.naval-technology.com/projects/baynunah/

It has a pretty exotic combination of French anti-ship missiles, American SAMs (ESSM + RAM) and an Italian 76 mm gun.

[af_vet_rr]

So is the UAE possibly trying to diversify their economy by moving into the defense industry? They’ve got all that oil money, and they are one of the richest nations in the world per person, but if that oil runs out, they are in trouble.

[nascarnation]

Interesting.
I’m assuming they bring in a bunch of worker bees from places like Korea and Indonesia, and let their American educated managers run it.

[stevie_d_64]

I gotta get a new set of Jane’s books..hehehe

[af_vet_rr]

Interesting.
I’m assuming they bring in a bunch of worker bees from places like Korea and Indonesia, and let their American educated managers run it.

Probably. I looked it up - 85% of their wealth/revenue is derived from oil and natural gas. It would be very wise of them to start building up these kinds of industries now rather than waiting until that revenue drops radically. Because of the environmentalist atmosphere in the US and elsewhere, they've got a leg up on us. They can buy off-the-shelf weapons and computer systems from us and the Europeans and Japanese and elsewhere, but their big advantage is the cheap labor, an incredibly business friendly atmosphere, and the lack of an EPA.

A lot of people talk about the Chinese building up a defense industry to take on the US militarily, but a lot of folks don't stop and think about the fact that in the long run, if more and more defense contracts go overseas, whether larger stuff to China or smaller stuff to places like UAE, we're in a much more dangerous situation. China is doing everything they can to undercut our defense and aerospace industries. It wouldn't take many contracts heading overseas before some of our biggest defense companies go under or have to lay of 10s of thousands of folks. Those kinds of jobs are almost impossible to replace.

[sukhoi-30mki]

Couldn’t agree more with af_vet_rr. The UAE has a pretty straightforward approach to business so companies can rapidly sign deals and set up infrastructure.

Another factor which a lot of people appear not to consider is the fact that the Middle East-North Africa (MENA) region is fast growing and diversified defense/security market. Most have focussed on the defense aspect and tend to ignore the security part ; pretty much all Arab nations have requirements for upgrades to their police/intelligence gathering and domestic security apparatus. Some of them are off limits to European and American firms due to human rights issues, so countries like the UAE and Turkey smell a very realistic opportunity there.

[af_vet_rr]

Couldn’t agree more with af_vet_rr. The UAE has a pretty straightforward approach to business so companies can rapidly sign deals and set up infrastructure.

It interested me, so I read a little bit about the UAE this morning. There are a lot of "American" companies, multi-nationals, who are setting up shop in the UAE not just for sales or service reasons, but it sounds like for long-term manufacturing or distribution.

It's been a long time, but I've visited UAE in the past, and I have had a lot of friends who have worked in the UAE on temporary jobs, and they seem to know what they are doing to attract businesses.