The commander of the Colombian Navy, Vice Admiral Francisco Cubides, has confirmed that the force contracted with the public shipyard Cotecmar the construction of a new oceanic patrol vessel OPV 93 Cand another logistics support ship BAL 6012.
With these new vessels, the Navy intends to reinforce, in the case of the OPV, operations for the protection of the environment and the guarantee of human and maritime security, particularly in the Pacific Ocean and, with the BAL, strengthen transport and liaison capacity, especially in the course of humanitarian aid missions in the Caribbean Sea.
The conceptual design of the OPV-93, renamed Patruillero Oceánico Colombiano (POC), has been developed by Cotecmar as a product of the experience acquired with the three OPV-80s, built up to this shipyard, under license from the German firm Fassmer, and in service in the Navy.
The POC, of 2,550 tons, will have a length (length) of 93 meters, a beam (width) of 14.20 meters, a strut of seven meters, a design draft of 4.1 meters, with a speed of up to 20 knots, with a range of up to 10,000 nautical miles, with an autonomy of 30 to 40 days and with a crew of 64 men.
Its operational profile is 45% in patrol at 12 kilometers per hour (km / h), 30% in patrol at low speed at 10 km / h, 15% in maneuver at 5 km / h, 6% in patrol at high speed (18 km / h) and 2% in maximum speed patrol (20 km / h).