• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

NNS Andoni OCEA Seaward Defence Boat (SDB)

The Nigerian Navy launched its first indigenous warship NN Andoni on 01 June 2012 with pomp and pageantry, presided over by President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan with the Nigerian Military Top brass and service chiefs including Federal Parliamentarians, attempt to evolve an indigenous ship building industry have begun. Nigeria’s incumbent First Citizen was happy that day penultimate Friday at the Nigerian Naval Dockyard, Victoria Island, Lagos, when he commissioned the first Nigerian-made warship, the NNS Andoni, into service with the NN.

The Commander-in-Chief pledged that the Federal Government will continue to promote the local content policy, noting that the Local Content Development Act is key to his administration and will boost the nation’s economy, creating job opportunities. It was time for some home truth, as the President said: “Nigeria at independence grew and we had Nigerian Airways, Nigerian (National) Shipping Line, and quite a number of investments that were doing well. But, because there was no indigenous touch, all these died over the period. And we refuse to embrace technology. Even countries that are at par with us are doing well building aircraft and other things.”

Described as a seaward defence boat (SDB), the 31-metre boat was built by the Navy engineers at the Nigerian Naval Dockyard, Victoria Island, Lagos, over a period of about four and half years. The Chief of the Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ola Sa’ad Ibrahim, in his address at the commissioning ceremony gave a veritable profile of the NNS Andoni, including why it took so long for her to be commissioned.

This seaward defence boat was designed and built after other river town class patrol craft in the NN inventory such as NNS Yola and NNS Brass, albeit with several modifications. The preliminary design of the boat was completed in September 2007, while the keel was laid in this yard in December 2007. However, several challenges in overseas procurement, technological capacity, environmental factors and production skills led to rescheduling of the completion timeline to April 2012. The basin and sea trials of the boat were successfully carried out in compliance with the International Maritime Organisation’s Certification.

Nigeria had passed a Cabotage Act which means that Nigerians should be creatively involved in the haulage of goods and services around the world starting from within and there is no way to can enforce the act when the country lacked the capacity and competence to play.

The Nigerian Navy (NN) 38m Seaward Defence Boat (SDB) project is an attempt at self-reliance in local construction of naval platforms. Since the Presidential directive at the commissioning of NNS ANDONI, the CNS, V Adm Ezeoba worked towards the construction of SDB 2. The 38M SDB under construction at the Naval Dockyard Limited (NDL) started with the construction of the inverted hull as a single unit, while the superstructure is being built as a separate entity. Upon completion of both units, they will now be welded together to achieve a single compact unit. The various segments of the superstructure have been fabricated and welded together.

On 22 December 2013, history was made in the NN, when upon completion of the hull, it was turned from the inverted position to the upright position and placed on keel blocks. This is the first time this evolution has taken place in the history of the NN, and this was executed with a 100 percent Nigerian Team. The boat was then ready for the next stage of the project which includes; the welding of the superstructure, construction of tanks, piping systems, electrical installations and installation of propulsion machinery among others. The vessel was expected to be commissioned into the NN fleet in June 2014.