Damen, Mexican Navy building POLA vessel

Damen Shipyards Group and the Mexican Navy are working together to build a Long Range Ocean Patrol (POLA) vessel, the company announced on 26 June.

With a length of 107m and a beam of 14m, the POLA vessel will be the Mexican version of the Damen’s SIGMA 10514. It will be able to sail at speeds of over 25 knots with a capacity of more than 20 days at sea.

Damen will build two of the six modular sections of the vessel at the Damen Schelde Naval shipyard in the Netherlands. The remaining four modules will be built in Mexico. The construction of these modules, along with the integration, will be carried out at a yard that cooperates on this with Damen.

During the construction of the modules in Europe, a Mexican team will be in the Netherlands to supervise the process and to receive knowledge transfer.

The first of the Dutch modules has already arrived in Mexico, where it is being integrated with two of those already built in Salina Cruz. The hull of the vessel has already been completed in drydock. It will now be prepared to receive the other three superstructure modules.

The POLA vessel will be capable of carrying out various missions including long range SAR, surveillance and patrol operations, and humanitarian relief.

The flagging ceremony of the POLA is planned for November 2018. A full integrated process of setting to work, commissioning, training, tests and trials will continue in 2019.