Damen 85 meter Offshore Patrol Vessel, 1800
On February 15, Armscor (the acquisition agency for the South African Department of Defence–Chuck) announced Damen Shipyards Cape Town as the preferred bidder for the construction of offshore and inshore patrol boats…”
Reportedly the project includes three Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPVs) and three Inshore Patrol Boats (IPBs) for the South African Navy.
The OPVs will be Damen’s Offshore Patrol Vessel 1800 Sea Axe, illustrated above, 85 meters in length, with a beam of 13.7 meters, and a speed of 26 knots.
The IPBs will be Damen’s FCS (STAN PATROL) 5009 design, illustrated below, which is also used by the Ecuadorian and Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guards. These are 50.2 meters (165 ft) in length, 9.32 meters (30.6 ft) of beam. The South African vessels are expected to make 30 knots. An unusual feature (aside from the bow) is the use of four propellers.
I talked to someone who has ridden on a 5009 patrol vessel and he reported that it did indeed significantly reduce pitching. The tradeoff was that it was very wet forward. This should not be surprising since the design minimizes the rise of the bow when it encounters a wave. You can see that they have attempted to counter this tendency by making the bow high and providing high bulwarks.
On the second page of this description of the design you will see a diagram of the ship which indicates that it can be fitted with up to three boats and a twin 40mm mount.
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Those are very interesting designs. Although the FCS 5009 is not exactly the same design as the Stan Patrol. FCS stands for Fast Crew Supplier intended for civil use but has a “security” version build in South Africa: http://products.damen.com/en/ranges/fast-crew-supplier/fcs-5009-security
Any information about the armament? They could use some local Reutech’s RWS, the most recent Super Sea Rogue designs use Rheinmetall’s KAE autocannon with 128 x 20mm caliber.
I found some extra information. In fact the 3 FCS 5009 are already finished, in stock, and have been produced in Damen’s Shipyards in Cape Town: http://www.defenceweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=44195:damen-shipyards-cape-town-nearly-finished-third-fcs-5009-multirole-vessel&catid=51:Sea&Itemid=106
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The larger OPVs were cancelled.