CADIZ, Spain, Aug. 1 (UPI) -- Spain plans to contract shipbuilder Navantia for five additional offshore patrol vessels, Minister for Defense Carme Chacon announced.
The program for the construction of the first four BAM, or Maritime Action Ship, was authorized by the Council of Ministers in May 2005. The first was delivered in late June.
Chacon, who made the announcement last week during a handover ceremony for the "Meteor," said that three of the new ships will be configured for patrol missions, one for search and rescue and one for oceanographic research.
Built entirely in Navantia's La Carraca shipyard in San Fernando, the vessel will be fully operational from next March following testing and qualification.
"BAM has the same ability to monitor our coasts, to act as hospital emergency humanitarian disaster, or to combat piracy in waters off Somalia," Chacon said. "That's the flexibility required for 21st-century missions."
While visiting Rota Naval Base in Cadiz for the ceremony, Chacon attended the official opening of a new pier. The dock is designed to increase capacity to support the Alliance's maritime forces, and was built as part of NATO's Security Investment Program.
The new Pier 4 is 1,305 feet long and 169 feet wide. The project cost a total of $66.9 million, of which NATO financed 52.3 percent and Spain the remainder.
