 | Italy Awards Order for Four FREMM Frigates |
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| (Source: compiled by defense-aerospace.com; posted Feb. 1, 2008) |
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| PARIS --- The Italian Ministry of Defense has signed a contract for the second batch of the FREMM multi-mission frigate program it is developing jointly with France. No value has been provided for this contract, which covers four additional ships. The contract was awarded to OCCAR, the European Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation, which is acting as the program’s joint executive, Italian Defense Undersecretary Giovanni Lorenzo Forcieri told reporters during a Jan. 31 media event in La Spezia. This contract brings the total number of FREMM frigates ordered by Italy to six, the first two ships having been ordered in 2006. “This program has substantial economic and employment benefits not only for the Riva Trigoso and Muggiano naval shipyards, but also for subcontractors such as Oto Melara, Selex and Elsag, and will provide work until 2016,” Forcieri is quoted as saying in Italian press reports. “We feared that the government crisis might block the contract’s signature…The FREMM program is fundamental for Riva Trigoso, where it will guarantee work-load for about ten years,” according to Sergio Ghio, trade union representative for Riva Trigoso which, like the Muggiano yard, belongs to the Fincantieri group. The announcement comes as Fincantieri is preparing to cut metal for the first two frigates. An event marking this milestone was scheduled for Feb. 8. Each ship will provide about two years of work to the shipyards. The four latest ships have been entirely funded in the 2007 budget, two by a special fund managed by the Ministry for Economic Development and two by the Ministry of Defence. Deliveries of the first two ships to the Italian Navy are scheduled for 2011 and 2012. The prime contractor for the FREMM program is a joint venture company between France’s Armaris (itself a joint venture between Thales and DCNS) and Italy’s Orizzonte Sistemi Navali S.p.A., jointly owned by Fincantieri and Finmeccanica. |
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