Navantia AVANTE family
Navantia says the AVANTE family of vessels are adaptable to perform a variety of missions. These ships are able to carry out a wide variety of missions, such as coastal surveillance and protection, protection of maritime traffic, health assistance to other ships, external firefighting, the fight and control of marine pollution, transport of personnel and provisions, search and rescue operations, rapid intervention, frogmen support, surface defence and passive electronic warfare. Navantia has built four of the ships for the Spanish Navy (AVANTE 3000) and four units of each class for the Venezuelan Navy (AVANTE 2200 and AVANTE 1400).
The AVANTE 3000 has a length of 93.90m, a displacement of over 2,900t and a maximum speed of 21 knots. Her main missions are the protection and escort of other ships, the control of maritime traffic, terrorist actions, piracy, fishing legislation and environmental legislation, operations against drug and persons trafficking, and crisis situation support and humanitarian assistance.
The AVANTE 1400 has a length overall of 79.90m, a displacement of 1,500 tons and the capacity reach a maximum speed of 22 knots.
The AVANTE 2200 has a length of 98.90m, a displacement of 2,200t and a maximum speed of 25 knots. It is able to perform a variety of missions such as surveillance and protection of the exclusive economic zone, protection of maritime traffic, defence of strategic interests, search and rescue operations, support for other units and humanitarian actions, control of marine pollution, the fight against smuggling, drug trafficking and illegal immigration, surveillance and gathering of operational and environmental intelligence, surface defence and passive electronic warfare.
Initial approval from Riyadh for the purchase of five Avante 2200 corvettes from Navantia was reached in February 2016. The country had already begun several years ago a tender for the purchase of frigates, which in addition to Navantia, French factories and the United States were also competing. Lower oil prices have slowed the procurement policy of a country whose economy depends primarily on oil.
By November 2016 Saudi Arabia was poised to purchase five Avante 2200 corvette patrol vessels from Navantia, the Spanish state-owned shipbuilding company, which offers its services to both military and civil sectors. The ships maintenance agreement will extend the relationship between Navantia and Saudi military authorities to a much longer period. According to IHS Jane the contract for the five ships could cost as much as $3.3 billion.
The five corvettes expected to be sold by Navantia were, according to official data, five years of workload in the depleted Cadiz and Ferrol shipyards and some 6,000 direct and indirect jobs related to this order. Navantia currently employed 5,300 people.
It was necessary for the Saudi monarchy to grant its final approval when the contract was with a public group. Felipe VI would ensure the order, but not sponsor the signature, which would remain for weeks later, to avoid involving the Monarch controversial policies. Saudi King Salman received his Spanish counterpart King Felipe VI on 15 January 2017 at the Al-Yamama palace in Riyadh. On the sidelines of King’s Felipe visit to Riyadh, a meeting was held between Minister of State Musaed Al-Aiban and Spanish Secretary of State for Defence Augustin Conde.
Non-governmental organizations such as Greenpeace and Amnesty International were calling on Navantia to refuse to sell corvettes to Saudi Arabia. The Directors of Amnesty International, the Peace Foundation (FundiPau), Greenpeace and Oxfam Intermón have sent an open letter to Navantia and the acting Spanish Prime Minister expressing their opposition to the imminent signature of an agreement between Navantia and Saudi Arabia to build five Avante 2200 frigates for the Saudi navy. The NGOs warned there is a clear risk that Saudi Arabia uses the frigates in the naval blockade it has imposed on Yemen since 25 March 2015, when it launched a devastating campaign of aerial attacks in Yemen in which it has committed serious violations of international humanitarian law, including war crimes.
On 19 July 2018 Madrid inked a military deal with the Riyadh regime, which would see a Spanish firm build five warships for Saudi Arabia, despite an international cry against the sales of military equipment to the kingdom amid its bloody war on impoverished Yemen. The agreement was signed between the state-owned Saudi Arabian Military Industries (SAMI) and Spain's shipbuilder, Navantia, paving the way for the two sides to set up a joint venture in the kingdom for constructing the five warships. The program to design and build the five Avante 2200 Corvettes would start in the coming months and that the last unit would be delivered by 2022. In turn, SAMI said, the joint venture would "localize more than 60 percent of ships combat systems works," including installation and integration.
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