Spain hopes to sell warships to Saudi Arabia

[Dawood Ibrahim]

• Foreign

10 MINS AGO BY AGENCIES

Close ties between the royal families of Spain and Saudi Arabia could help Madrid conclude a lucrative deal to sell warships to Riyadh, much to the alarm of rights groups.

They claim the sale would be illegal under international law and accuse the oil-rich kingdom of carrying out war crimes in its military campaign in Yemen, which has killed thousands of civilians.

Spain’s King Felipe VI will on Saturday begin a three-day official visit to the Middle Eastern country at the invitation of Saudi Arabia’s King Salman. Spanish media has linked this visit to a much anticipated deal to sell Avante 2200 corvettes for an estimated two billion euros ($2.1 billion).

“We can only confirm that negotiations are very advanced to build five warships which would be sold to the Saudi navy,” a spokesperson for state-owned Spanish ship builder Navantia told a foreign news agency.

Spain is currently the seventh largest arms exporter in the world. Its arms exports jumped by 55 percent in 2011-15 over the previous five years, according to the Brussels-based Group for Research and Information on Peace and Security. And its sales to Saudi Arabia, the country with the highest military expenditure per capita, are on the rise.

Friend of Saudi royals

Felipe’s father, Juan Carlos, who reigned from 1975 to 2014, “had and still has an exceptional personal relationship with the Saudi royal family, which has boosted economic ties”, said Ana Romero, who was written several books about the former king.

Juan Carlos was a close friend of Saudi Arabia’s late King Fahd, who reigned from 1982 to 2005, and is close to his brother King Salman.

Fahd offered Juan Carlos a yacht and the two would meet frequently, in private, in France and at the Saudi monarch’s luxurious palace in the upmarket beach resort of Marbella on Spain’s southern coast.

Juan Carlos was credited with playing a decisive role in 2011 in helping a Spanish consortium win a contract worth 6.7 billion euros ($7 billion) to build a high-speed railway linking the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.

“There has always been a suspicion that Juan Carlos was a great lobbyist not only for Spain but also to aid his friends, close businessmen and maybe even himself,” said Romero.

“Everything is different with Felipe VI: nobody thinks he can do something like that, Spanish entrepreneurs do not travel with him and his trips are much more controlled by the state.”

If the deal for the five corvettes goes ahead, it would provide jobs for over 2,000 people for several years, said Jose Antonio Fernandez Vidal, a representative of Spain’s biggest union, Comisiones Obreras, in the northwestern region of Galicia, which is home to a major shipyard. “We are awaiting this like rain in summer to create jobs in shipyards,” he said.

Spain’s jobless rate of 18.9 percent is the second highest in the European Union after Greece. The contract is not a done deal yet as Saudi Arabia is slashing spending with falling oil prices having led to a drop in revenues. And Spain faces stiff competition.

France hopes to sell another type of navy ship to the Saudis, said a source at French defence contractor DCNS. During 2014-15 Spain was the fourth biggest exporter of weapons to Saudi Arabia after the United States, Britain and France, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

‘Clearly illegal’

“The question is: is the contract legal or illegal. And it is clearly illegal,” said Alberto Estevez, an expert on arms sales at the Spanish branch of Amnesty International.

A 2013 United Nations global arms trade treaty bans the sales of arms which could be used in attacks against civilians or other violations of humanitarian law, he said.

A Saudi-led coalition began air strikes over Yemen in March 2015 after Huthi rebels and their allies, troops loyal to ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh, overran much of Yemen. Riyadh feared the Huthis would take over all of Yemen and move it into the orbit of Iran, Saudi Arabia’s regional rival.

A coalition of rights groups in Spain, including Amnesty and Oxfam, has outlined dozens of alleged war crimes carried out by the Saudi-led coalition, such as the bombing of hospitals and schools.

The Spanish corvettes could be used for more than just patrols, warned Jordi Calvo, a researcher at Barcelona’s Study Centre for Peace J.M. Delas. They can be equipped with missile systems or cannons, and helicopter launch pads, he said.

 

[The SC]

Avante 2200 Combatant class

Displacement: 2,500 tons
Length: 98.9 m
Beam: 13.6 m
Draft: 4.1 m
Complement: 92

‘As Is Systems’
As it is right now, the A2200C has a couple of features that would meet the current bid requirements already,2 and these are:

• Speed and Range – In terms of performance, the A2200C already exceeds some of the requirements, like for example it has maximum speed of 28 knots while the requirement is only 25 knots. Its range of 9,000 km @ 15 knots also comfortably exceeds the requirement of 8,100 km @ 15 knots.

A model of the Avante 2200 Combatant at the ADAS 2014 exhibit. Photo courtesy of Roy Kabanlit

• Main Gun System – Its 76 mm main Gun also fits in nicely with the requirement of 76 mm caliber minimum. The Guaiqueri class of ships have the newer Oto Melara 76/62 Super Rapid (SR)3 which is better than the older model Oto Melara 76/62 Compact Cannons we have on our Jacinto and Del Pilar-class ships as the SR has a higher rate of fire of 120 rounds per minute (rpm) compared to the 80 rpm on the older model cannon. It also has a “stealth profile”, designed to reduce the radar cross section of the gun; The ability to switch quickly between two different types of ammunition thru its multi-feed system; And a Muzzle Velocity Radar giving it better accuracy by inputting the actual velocity of the round when computing for ballistic trajectory.
• Torpedo Launchers – The ship has two triple Torpedo launchers, one on each side, probably the standard and ubiquitous Mk 32 Launcher with Mk 46 Lightweight Torpedoes, and these will be kept as it fits the minimum requirements.
• Softkill System – The ship has an unnamed Radio Frequency (RF) and Infra-Red (IR) decoy launchers, and actually exceeds the requirement as it has twelve launchers, six on each side whereas the requirement only asks for six launchers, three on each side.
• Main Radar System – The requirement is for separate 2D Air and Surface search radars, but the Guaiqueri class Frigate has a Thales Smart-S Mk2 3D Radar which does the function of both radars and actually exceeds the specs and I THINK this will be retained. Actually the radar was one of the things I forgot to ask about as my head was already spinning from all the other information I was getting, hence the omission. The Smart-S has an estimated detection range of at least 81 km for an aerial target with a Radar Cross Section (RCS) of 5 m^2, which is okay. Detection range for a surface target with an RCS of 30,000 m^2 is estimated to be at least 32 km, better than the AN/SPS-73 Radar on the Del Pilar class ships which can only detect the same size target at around 22 km.4
  
  
• Anti-Ship Missiles (AShM) – The ship carries two quad launchers for AShMs, comfortably exceeding the two twin launchers of the requirements. The Navantia rep specifically mentioned the RGM-84 Harpoon AShMs, although I forgot to ask if the two quad launcher configuration will be kept or they will change it to a two twin-launcher system.
  
  
• Helipad Capacity and Enclosed Hangar Space – The A2200C has an enclosed hangar space rated to have the weight and space to accommodate a ten ton Helicopter which meets the bidding specifications.

‘Modifications’
A feature or so will have to be upgraded to meet the bidding requirements, but most of the modifications actually involve the downgrade of the weapons and sensors from the existing A2200C model.

• Surface to Air Missiles (SAMs) – The ship has provisions for an eight cell Vertical Launch System (VLS) for SAMs, but the Navantia rep specifically said that it will be omitted, and that an unnamed shorter-ranged SAM will be used instead. This is probably a cost-saving measure that will still fit the required specifications which only calls for a quadruple launcher with missiles with a minimum range of six km.

Side view of the Avante 2200 Combatant. Photo courtesy of Navantia Official thru Flickr

• Sonar System – Provisions for a Towed Array System (TAS) is available on the A2200C, but the Navantia rep said that an unnamed Hull-Mounted Sonar (HMS) will be used instead. This is probably another cost-saving measure as it already meets the specifications as the requirement did not specify which type of Sonar system should be installed as long as it has one.
• Close In Weapons System (CIWS) – The ship usually has an Oerlikon 35 mm Millennium Naval Gun System as CIWS, but the Navantia rep said that it will be changed into an unnamed 30 mm gun on a Remote Weapons System (RWS) setup. Again this is a cost-saving measure as the requirement only calls for a stabilized system that can be used in conjunction with the ship’s Fire Control System, similar to the MSI Seahawk A2 mount with a 30 mm gun which will meet the specs.
  
  
• Endurance – The ship has a listed endurance of 21 days, but the minimum requirement calls for 30 days, hence the ship will have to increase its consumable provisions (i.e., food, oil, water reserves, etc.) by 33%. Space will have to be found for these and will also result in a corresponding slight increase in the weight of the ship.

‘Reflections’
The A2200C is SUPERIOR in almost all aspects to the modified Floreal-class that France’s STX is fielding in because while the Floreal will have to be UPGRADED on most points like installing Anti Submarine Warfare (ASW) capability, installing more missiles, changing to a RWS setup for its minor-caliber cannon, etc.,5 the A2200C actually EXCEEDS most requirements already and in fact had to DOWNGRADE some of its weapons and sensors for cost-saving purposes. The A2200C also already has a sleek, stealth profile while the Floreal may or may not add in this feature, and is built along military standards unlike the commercial specifications of the Floreal which makes it less equipment and weapons “dense”.

The only real advantage of the Floreal over the A2200C is its extremely long 50-day endurance and superior range. I suspect that even if the change to larger, heavier and more powerful engines eats up on the Floreal’s range to boost its speed to meet the minimum specifications, it will still have a 1,000 km or so more range than the A2200C. The Floreal’s DAGAIE Decoy System also carries more rounds at ten per side compared to the only six per side of the A2200C.

The downgrade of some of the weapons and sensors are a bit of a letdown, but these are expected given the humble budget that we have of USD 200 million per ship, and because European-standard design and manufacturing also means more expensive European-standard costs and pricing. The original weapons systems themselves are expensive, for example a Mk 41 VLS costs USD 4 million for an eight cell launcher,6 not counting the missiles like the RIM-162 Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile (ESSM) where you would need 32 to fit into those launchers costing an additional USD 26 million assuming a unit cost of USD 800k per missile.7 The Millennium gun costs around USD 8 million each,8 and the change to a RWS could cut that price to around half, resulting in significant savings and putting them on the manufacturer’s slim profit margins.

https://rhk111smilitaryandarmspage....ndidate-modified-avante-2200-combatant-class/

 

[Dr Shaheryar]

Then ISRAEL , RUSSIA, GERMANY, FRANCE, INDIA and USA should be banned. But sorry these are Non-Muslim countries. Ban is only applicable to Muslims. When will Muslim world realize this western hatred.

 

[somebozo]

The rights group should be given a live hand grenade in their mouth and a splinter mortar up in the behind..