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| Baynunah-class corvette (File Photo) |
By: Christopher P. Cavas
ABU DHABI – The sixth and last Baynunah-class corvette was commissioned into service Monday as Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, vice president and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates and ruler of Dubai, raised his country’s flag over the ship’s stern. The ceremony took place at the IDEX/NAVDEX defense exposition here in Abu Dbabi.
The Al Hili is the sixth and last of a class of small yet powerful, French-designed corvettes now in service with the UAE Navy. While the first of class Baynunah was built by Constructions Mécaniques de Normandie, a French shipyard in Cherbourg, the other five were all built by Abu Dhabi Shipbuilding in Abu Dhabi.
As reported by his official news service, the Sheikh told the crew that the “Al Hili corvette was produced by bright national minds and strong arms. It is a 100 percent national product and is another proof that we have long been masters of the sea. Shipbuilding was the craft of our ancestors that will always be an immortalised heritage and a source of pride for successive generations,” Sheikh Mohammed, who did not speak publicly at the event, reportedly said.
The 72-meter long Baynunahs displace about 844 tons fully loaded and have a crew of 41. With four MTU diesels powering three Kamewa waterjets, the ships can better 32 knots and cruise for 2,400 nautical miles. Two of the corvettes reportedly are on patrol in the southern Red Sea area supporting anti-Houthi operations in Yemen.
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PacificSentinel: As far as I'm concerned, this is the best Combat Corvette design ever built, small, low radar visibility, fast, and powerful (for a corvette), with enough sensors to find the target of those weapons, it's hard to see what else could be added to this impressive little ship, it's exactly the kind of ship I wish the Australian Government/Navy would deploy in stead of the OPV's they plan on building in the near future. *sigh*