• Investments: Navantia signs a 900 million euro agreement with the Saudi army

The United States has turned its back on the public naval company Navantia and has selected the Italian Fincantieri project for the construction of up to ten frigates through the FFG (X) project , a contract in which the SEPI company had deposited many hopes.

The American Navy announced this Thursday, April 30, the winner of the contest through a statement, detailing that it opts for the Italian model and its FREEMM proposal .

Specifically, the winning bid has been that of Marinette Marine Corporation (MMC) , a company based in the US state of Wisconsin and which has been owned by Fincantieiri since 2009.

The contract includes the construction of up to ten frigates for the US Navy in a first phase, in addition to a base ship.

Optionally, the program could be extended with another nine ships, since it is a long-term project and over the years the most appropriate decisions will be taken.

The selected ships are designed to be able to act in all kinds of war situations and, as the US Navy points out, in the statement, they can "carry out operations of air warfare, anti-submarine warfare, surface warfare, electronic warfare and information . "

Contest opening

In this contest that dates back to 2017, Navantia was presented in conjunction with the American company General Dynamics , where the AEGIS system, of North American origin, was one of the guarantees to get this contract.

Navantia provided this system to ships built in recent years, both those of the Spanish Navy, with the F-100 frigates , and orders for Norway and Australia .

In addition, three other countries have this system: the US, Japan and South Korea , which initially suggested that this would also be a criterion to take into account when opting for the Spanish proposal, something that has not finally happened .

All in all, the winning proposal does not have the AEGIS system as a combat system, since it is based on the model used by the military ships of Italy, France, Morocco or Egypt , but since the North American military department they have already advanced that the new units will be equipped with AEGIS.

Abandonment

After the resolution, some soldiers consulted by Europa Press have estimated that behind this decision could be the government's decision to withdraw the 'Blas de Lezo' frigate , based in Ferrol , from a deployment in which it planned to make a world tour. as an escort for the aircraft carrier 'USS Abraham Lincoln' .

Almost a year ago, on May 14, the Pedro Sánchez government ordered the F-100 series frigate to leave the group when the US military ship and other supporting ships were dispatched to the Persian Gulf .

All this in light of the escalation of violence in the area, in a conflict between the United States and Iran , a decision that he did not like and which was criticized by the American Embassy in Spain, and which has already motivated some voices to believe that this decision could have consequences in this contest.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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