NAVDEX 2025: First of UAE Navy’s four Falaj-3 OPVs commissioned
The Falaj-3 OPV in its design concept stage. (Photo: ADSB)
The vessels were first discussed a full ten years before the commissioning ceremony, and three more are due within the next three years.
Edge Group and Abu Dhabi Ship Building (ADSB) have commissioned the ATLAF missile boat, the first of four Falaj-3 OPVs, at a ceremony at NAVDEX 2025.
Talks first began on the Falaj-3 vessels in 2015, between ADSB and the UAE. It took six years to move from those beginnings to a contract signing in May 2021, during the last two of which, there was much discussion with the UAE MoD and the UAE Navy over the terms of the contract and the final specification of the OPVs.
When it was signed, the four-vessel deal was worth AED3.5 billion (US$950 million), the largest contract ASDB had ever been awarded according to Shephard Defence Insight, though the yard had previously built the UAE Navy's Baynunah-class corvettes, the last of which was delivered in 2017.
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The steel-cutting ceremony for the first-of-class vessel took place at ADSB’s facilities in Abu Dhabi on 21 December 2022, a little more than two years prior to the commissioning.
The 62m OPV, based on the platform of the Fearless class used in Singapore, was built entirely indigenously in Abu Dhabi, and the remaining three vessels in the class are expected to follow suit. They will be operate in both littoral and blue waters, undertaking anti-air warfare, anti-surface warfare and anti-submarine warfare missions.
At the ceremony, David Massey, CEO of ADSB, said: “This vessel showcases the strength of our engineering, the dedication of our team, and our commitment to advancing the UAE’s shipbuilding industry.”
The rest of the class is scheduled to be commissioned between now and 2028.
During NAVDEX 2025, it also emerged that ADSB could be preparing to pitch the Falaj-3 to the Kuwaiti Navy to meet its $2.2bn eight-vessel patrol boat requirement, potentially with input from Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri.
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