MARITIME CONTRACT
Armscor pulls the plug on order for navy’s offshore patrol vessels
State-owned arms procurement agency Armscor has cancelled a long-awaited order for three offshore patrol vessels for the South African Navy. This comes after Damen Shipyards Cape Town, the South African affiliate of Dutch shipbuilder Damen, won the award for the construction of three inshore patrol vessels. Delivery was expected in about seven years’ time. The order, along with the cancelled order, formed part of Project Biro. Armscor also confirmed that in November 2017 — under Project Hotel — it had awarded an order for the construction of a hydrographic survey vessel for the navy to Southern African Shipyards in Durban. Delivery is expected in four years’ time. The orders under Project Hotel and Biro represent the first major acquisition for the navy since the arms deal of the 1990s. Neither the shipbuilder nor Armscor would disclose the value of the orders, though an industry insider quoted by Defenceweb speculated it could have been as high as R8bn if all the elements in the pr...
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