The flag of the Republic of Malta flies on the Offshore Patrol Vessel P71 to sanction the entry into service of the new flagship of the Armed Forces of Malta built by Cantiere Navale Vittoria. On 22 March, at the AFM naval base in Floriana, Valletta, it was held, in the presence of the Minister of the Interior, Security, Reforms and Equality of the Republic of Malta, Byron Camilleri, the Minister of Economy, European Funds and the Territory of the Republic of Malta, Silvio Schembri, the Parliamentary Secretary for European Funds, Chris Bonett , the Chief of the Maltese Armed Forces, Brigadier Clinton O’Neill, the Italian Ambassador in Valletta, Fabrizio Romano, and the board member of the Board of Directors of Cantiere Navale Vittoria, Luigi Duò, the official ceremony of delivery of the patrol boat, in Malta for some months now.
The 75-metre-long unit built at the Adria plant will be used in coastal surveillance operations, prolonged patrols on the high seas and Search and Rescue operations.
Luigi Duò, member of the Board of Directors of the Vittoria Shipyard during the ceremony thanked the institutions present and the representatives of the AFM for their collaboration and trust, underlining that: “The boat now supplied to the Maltese Armed Forces, for design quality, technical characteristics and equipment, will represent an international reference point for units of the same type. Honored by the relationship of esteem and collaboration built over the years and started decades ago with the delivery of the two Melita SAR units, we look to the future with hope, confident that the P71 unit, our 890th unit, will be up to all the peculiar tasks for which it was conceived and realized. We just have to wish the men and women of the armed forces good seas”.
The OPV P71, is the result of the contract, with a total value of over 50 million euros, obtained through participation in a pre-selection first and in an international public tender then headed by the Ministry of Defense of the island and co-financed (for 75%) by the EU under the Internal Security Fund (ISF) 2014-2020, the fund established by the Union for the implementation of the Internal Security Strategy, law enforcement cooperation and management of the external borders of European countries.
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