French shipyard Ocea has sent two newly built ships; the FPB110 NNS SOKOTO (P193) and the C-Falcon 2 (P272) interceptor boat to Nigeria.
The two ships are being ferried aboard a cargo ship in La Rochelle on 25th October 2020 and will be delivered in Lagos in November.
The C-Falcon 2 (P272) interceptor boat is the first of four, the other three vessels will be delivered shortly says Ocea.
“Four additional vessels will also leave OCEA shipyard in early December for delivery to Nigeria. Thanks to the continuous Integrated Logistics Support that OCEA has put in place for the Nigerian Navy, the fleet of boats built by OCEA is and will remain in operation on a daily basis to the complete satisfaction of the customer.”
Nigeria’s C-Falcon 2 boats is 17 meters long and 3.6 meters wide, and a top speed of 45 to 55 knots with a range of 260 miles at 25 knots.
It is crewed by four sailors including an officer, it is able to carry 16 commandos under the bridge. A ramp at the front will allow for beach landings.
The C-Falcon interceptor vessel can undertake several littoral missions like escort, patrol and offensive missions, including boarding operations and personnel insertion. It can be fitted with a remotely operated turret.
While the FPB 110 MKII multi-purpose fast patrol boat featuring a monohull which improves the vessels performance and durability. The boats superstructure and hulls was constructed using aluminium.
With a length of 35 meters, width of 7.1 meters and draft of 1.7 meters. it is crewed by eleven personnel. the boat can also accommodate a further six people.
The Nigerian FPB 110 MK II can be armed with a 20 mm or 30 mm naval gun operated remotely or manually. it can also mount two heavy machine guns to engage speed boats and other surface targets.
Ocea is also building one 60 metres OCEA OSV 190 SC-WB a hydrographic research vessel (NNS LANA) which was launched in September will also be delivered later this year or early 2021.
The Nigerian Navy in 2018 awarded OCEA to design and build the NNS LANA, after beating Indian Shipyards for the contract.
In the past eight years, Ocea has built and supplied eleven vessels to the Nigerian Navy, these are one OCEA FPB 98 MKI, eight OCEA FPB 72 MKII and two OCEA FPB 110 MKII.
In 2018, the Nigerian Navy commissioned sixteen patrol boats at the Naval Dockyard in Lagos, the patrol boats includes two FPB 110 MKII hulls – Nguru (P 187) and Ekulu (P 188) which were delivered in April, four smaller FPB 72 MKII hulls – Shiroro (P 185), Ose (P 186), Gongola (P 189), and Calabar (P 190).
All vessels were delivered between late 2017 and April 2018 by Ocea.