Ares 150, 48 meter OPV built for Qatar Coast Guard
Its fast, its composite construction, and its slightly longer, but lighter, than our Webber class.
MarineLink reports a cooperation between International design and engineering company BMT and the Turkish Ares shipyard (see link for more detail) resulted in an unusual vessel for the Qatar Coast Guard. (Sorry I am a little late in publishing this.)
“These boats break two important records – firstly, they have become the largest composite hull military ship to have ever been built in Turkey and secondly, with its speed of 37 nautical miles an hour (emphasis applied–Chuck), it is the world’s fastest offshore patrol vessel (OPV). It is exciting to also report that the outstanding performance of the first ARES 150 HERCULES has also led to an immediate order for a further three vessels.”
I don’t see either weapons or a boat.
Ares shipyard photo
Chuck Hill's CG Blog 
There’s a crane for small RIB aft. One or two of their designs seem to have the boat as an afterthought.
They are offering ROLLS-ROYCE 70 SKADI OPV design. I wouldn’t mind knowing its speed range.
Kind of odd they did not mention its speed, meaning either it is nothing to brag about or there are options for different speeds. I suspect probably looking at 20 knots which seems to be the new minimum for vessels of this type.
Yes. I have looked and I can’t find any exact details. I was hoping it would top out of 25kts. Not that we will buy any of them but the Skadi 70 is the sort of vessel we in the UK need.
I think the UK is going to be happy they have the River Batch IIs even after all the gripping about it being just a way to keep the shipyard busy.
Many commercial ships can cruise at 25 kts – it makes little sense to have a policing boat slower than 27 kts without a boarding-by-helo capability if you want to be able to police such freighters.
Policing fishing is a different thing.
37 kts sounds to me like an alternative to an onboard helo.
Boarding by Helo is very rare, In most circumstance merchant ships will slow when directed. If they need to be forcibly stopped that will require a lot more force than we see here.
I think it is more probable they are thinking about high speed smuggling craft. For that we use airborne use of force helicopters. So perhaps it is a substitute for helicopters, but for another mission.
37 knots for what? That is what you use the helo, UAV or fast RHIB for.
My definition of an OPV is a station ship for constabukary roles and perhaps shooting.
To me an OPV is NOT an interceptor
@ Chuck Hill
As we leave the EU we are going to be a difficult position when it comes to fisheries protection. We might keep the B1 Rivers in service while things settled down with out Continental neighbours. I am expecting a bumpy ride. The UK government doesn’t have many small vessels for this kind of ‘police’ work. We shall see.