Denmark and Norway joined the European Patrol Corvette program

Both countries joined Italy, France, Spain and Greece in the European Patrol Corvette programme, thereby providing insight and opportunity to participate in the largest current joint European maritime arms programme.

Denmark and Norway join the European Patrol Corvette: A new phase of the European arms programme

Both countries were listed in a statement issued on Monday by the Italian Fincantieri, the French Naval Group, their joint-venture Naviris and the Spanish Navantia, as co-founders of the intention group. Four of these European companies have requested €60 million under EU research funding for the EPC project. This amount will be increased by another EUR 30 million for research, funded by Italy, France, Spain and Greece, and Norway and Denmark.

Known officially as Modular Multirole Patrol Corvette, or MPPC, the program already has its first declared orders. France plans to acquire six units, Spain to six and eight will order Italy. The first deliveries are to take place in 2027 and the unit price is to be EUR 250-300 million.

Corvette was included in the so-called permanent structural cooperation (PESCO), which is a list of recommended pan-European defence programmes to create synergies between EU defence companies. The companies involved in the project have provided the European Defence Fund with a list of proposals for research work for which they wish to receive this EUR 60 million.

The areas for which companies propose to allocate money are drive, unmanned technologies, modularity and data management. The Union funds are to be allocated by the beginning of 2023. By jointly developing a new ship, the Union countries are to gain European independence in the construction of sea-wide medium-sized battleships. A corvette measuring approx. 105 metres with a displacement of approx. 3,000 tons will be present in at least two versions: long-range combat and patrol.

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