The Philippine OPV in Tests

30 Oktober 2019

Gabriela Silang on her arrival at Saint-Nazaire on October 25 (all photos : Bernard Prezelin)

Commissioned by the Philippines for their coastguard service, the offshore patrol boat (OPV) Gabriela Silang, the largest ship ever made by the Ocea shipyard Vendée, arrived Friday, October 25 in Saint-Nazaire. From the Sables d'Olonne, where it was launched on July 17, the building is in the testing and training phase of its crew, already on board for several weeks. It should be delivered next month and set sail for the Philippines, where it is expected from late December.

Gabriela Silang was named in honor of a Filipino revolutionary, a figure of the independence movement against the dead Spain murdered in 1763 at the age of 32 years.

83.6 meters long and 15.4 meters wide, this offshore patrol boat is not only the largest boat produced by Ocea, but also the largest all-aluminum OPV monohull manufactured to date in the world.

Capable of reaching speeds of 22 knots and crossing 8000 miles at 12 knots, it will be able to operate for five weeks without refueling. Its propulsion is diesel-electric and it is equipped with a stabilization system to improve comfort at sea.

Armed by a crew of 40 sailors, the new Philippine patrol boat will be able to accommodate 26 additional personnel, such as divers or commandos, and has premises to house 35 people, for example shipwrecked.

Designed for offshore patrols, particularly surveillance and protection missions in the exclusive economic zone of the Philippine archipelago, the OPV has a platform and a hangar for a 5 ton helicopter and will works two semi-rigid boats of 9 meters. It has a mission system that integrates surveillance, detection and communication.

OPV 270 type, it is the second deep-sea patrol boat that completes Ocea after the delivery in 2016 in Senegal of the  Fouladou, building of 58 meters of type OPV 190 . He had followed the realization for the Indonesian Navy of two 60-meter hydrographic vessels of the OSV 190 type, a third such vessel to be built for Nigeria.

(MerEtMarine)