Navantia Launches First Maritime Action Ship for Spanish Navy

The San Fernando-Puerto Real Shipyard has launched the first maritime action ship Meteoro P-41 for the Spanish Navy.

Spanish Economics and Treasury Minister Elena Salgado Méndez christened the ship in a ceremony also attended by the chairman of SEPI, Enrique Martínez Robles, the chairman of Navantia, Aurelio Martínez Estévez, and the Spanish Navy’s highest authority, Admiral Manuel Rebollo García.

The ship, expected to be delivered in late 2010, is the first of an initial series of four Navantia will build for the Spanish Navy. The company hopes to be commissioned for a total of 10 units.

The order of ships will create a workload for Navantia lasting until the end of 2011, with 3,130,000 hours of work including 270,000 hours of engineering.

The Meteoro is a moderately sized high performance ship with great versatility for missions, boasting a high level of system commonality with other Spanish Navy ships as well as low acquisition and life cycle costs.

The Meteoro‘s main missions are:

• Protection and escort of other ships
• Control of maritime traffic
• Control and neutralisation of terrorist actions and piracy
• Operations against drug and human trafficking
• Maritime rescue and salvage operations
• Crisis situation support and humanitarian assistance
• Control of fishing legislation
• Control of environmental and anti-pollution legislation

The ship’s main features:

• Overall length: 93.90m
• Maximum beam: 14.20m
• Depth to flight deck: 7.20m
• Displacement at full load: 2,575t
• Scantling draught: 4.4m
• Maximum speed: 20.5kn
• Autonomy (at 15kn): 8,000 miles
• Crew: 35
• Additional capacity: 35