The French Naval Group company has won a contract to build four corvette warships for the Romanian armed forces, the country's defence minister announced on Wednesday.

"I strongly believe it's an important moment for Romania's naval forces which haven't received any new equipment in the last 30 years", Gabriel Les told reporters at a press conference.

French Defence Minister Florence Parly said in a statement that she "welcomes this decision which is fully part of the effort to built a strong and ambitious Europe in defence matters".

Parly added that the contract would "secure more than 400 jobs on Naval Group's sites over the next five years".

The statement said the contract would cover four new vessels and the renovation of a further two, and would cost 1.2 billion euros ($1.35bn).

The bid was won by the French company in association with the Constanta Shipyard, one of the criteria for the contract being that the construction will take place in Romania.

The Italian group Ficantieri and the Dutch group Damen were also fighting for the contract.

The bidding for the contract had previously been beset by scandal.

According to local media, Romanian officials had previously attempted to thwart Naval Group's bid and award the contract to Damen instead for "political reasons".

The attempts to frustrate Naval Group's bid are suspected to have included an audit launched by the ministry in November, as well as the suspension of the call for tenders in January, which was followed by the case's referral to military prosectors over "risks to the national security interest".

Last month, the official in the defence ministry who had made that referral was fired.

The firing came a few days after Liviu Dragnea, who was widely seen as the most powerful politician in the country as the former head of the ruling Social Democratic Party, was jailed for corruption.

Gabriel Les refused to comment on the controversy surrounding the bid, underlining that the French group fulfilled the technical criteria and offered the lowest price.

Romania became a member of NATO in 2004 and recently started a programme to enhance its military defence.

According to Les, Naval Group is due to build the first corvette within three years and the others will be delivered before 2026.

ii-bur/jsk/cw

NAVAL GROUP

Related Links
Naval Warfare in the 21st Century

Tweet

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only

Navy turns to outside experts to fix Ford carrier's elevator problems
Washington (UPI) Jul 2, 2019
The U.S. Navy is relying on an independent team of government and outside experts for a "full court press" to overcome problems with the advanced weapons elevators aboard the newly constructed aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford. Only two of Ford's 11 elevators, which are run with electromagnetic, linear synchronous motors, are operational. They allow for greater capacities and a faster movement of weapons than the Nimitz-class carrier elevators, which utilize cables, and are expected to reduce req ... read more