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
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