Italy, Qatar in $4.28bn deal

Qatar: Qatar signed a contract Thursday worth €3.8 billion, or $4.28bn, to buy seven naval vessels from Italy’s Fincantieri shipyard as part of Italy’s largest ever naval export deal.

The Gulf nation also signed a pre-contract agreement, or “Letter of Award” with European missile house MBDA to supply Exocet and Aster 30 missiles worth €1bn to equip the vessels, with a contract to follow “within weeks,” Italian officials said.

Qatari naval officials applauded the signing of the deal, held in Rome by Fincantieri Chief Executive Giuseppe Bono and Qatari naval commander Mohammed Nasser Al Mohannadi.

Qatar is acquiring four corvettes, one landing platform dock and two offshore patrol vessels, with a six-year construction program due to start at Fincantieri’s Italian yards in 2018.

The corvettes will be over 100 meters long and displace  3,000 tonnes, or 6.61 million pounds, officials said, while the OPV vessels will be 60 meters long and weigh in at 700 tonnes. The largest vessel in the order, the landing platform dock, will be modelled after the LPD Fincantieri delivered to Algeria, albeit with “enhancements”, a source knowledgeable of the deal said.

Delivered to Algeria in 2014, the Kalaat Béni Abbès is 143 meters long and displaces 9,000 tonnes.

Italian firm Leonardo-Finmeccanica will provide combat systems for all the vessels and take a third share of the contract, said Lorenzo Mariani, the managing director of the firm’s Land and Naval Defence Electronics Division.

The radar to be installed on the corvettes will be based on the multi-functional radar the firm has previously built for Italy’s FREMM frigates, he said. The firm’s Oto Melara 76mm cannons will be provided, as well as 30mm small caliber weapon systems, an anti-torpedo protection system and the Thesan mine avoidance sonar.

A second source knowledgeable of the deal said the platforms were worth 30 to 35 per cent of the value of the contract, while propulsion systems would be worth 20 to 25 percent of the value. Built into the contract is 15 years of logistic support.

The industrial deal signed on Thursday was matched by a government-to-government agreement signed by Italian Defence Minister Roberta Pinotti and Qatar’s defense minister, Khalid Bin Muhammad Al- Attiyah.

Italy’s defence industry has long bemoaned a lack of export campaign support from the Italian government, but defence ministry officials have recently begun to offer key backing to industry, notably in the recent deal to sell Eurofighters to Kuwait. (DefenseNews)