Today, 22.09.2010, in Constanta Harbour, in the presence of minister of administration and interior Mr. Vasile BLAGA, the general inspector of Romanian Border Police, police principal quaestor Mr. Ioan BUDA, and several officials within Phare Payments and Contracting Unit, DAMEN Shipyards Gorinchem - the Netherlands and ISRAEL Shipyard, took place the ceremony of baptism and handing over of the flag of the offshore patrol vessel "Stefan cel Mare", built in Damen Shipyard - Galati.
Within the same ceremony, another two patrolling and intervention vessels, MAI 2110 and MAI 2111, which will enter the endowment of the Romanian Border Police, received their flags.
These maritime vessels were purchased through two contracts financed from European funds Schengen Facility, RO FSCH 18.1.1 - Offshore Patrol Vessel and RO FSCH 18.1.2. - Patrolling and intervention vessels, which is carried out within RO FSCH 18 project: "Reinforcement of external border control through the increase of naval and land mobility".
Offshore patrol vessel "Stefan cel Mare" MAI 1105 was built by DAMEN Shipyards Gorinchem - the Netherlands, in Galati Shipyard, amounting to 24,750,000 EURO, and it started on 12.01.2009.
The vessel is able to navigate annually at least 4000 hours, to operate on a sea state 6, it can perform missions of minimum 7 days, the radius of action is minimum 1,800 nautical miles, at cruise speed, it has interoperability capacity with other surveillance, communication, data transmission systems and is part of SCOMAR.
The offshore patrol vessel has the capacity to carry out search-rescue activities, as well as prevention and countering pollution at sea and can extinguish fires on the vessels in danger at sea.
Technical characteristics:
Length: 66 m Breadth: 10 m Crew: 19 sailors Transport capacity: maximum 100 persons, including crew Operation autonomy: 1,800 miles at cruise speed of 17 knots Engine type: 2 engines MTU type, type 16V4000M73 Maximum speed: 21 Kn Patrol speed: 12 KnPatrolling vessels MAI 2110 and MAI 2111 were built by Israel Shipyards; the total amount of the contract is 26,914,000 EURO - for 3 vessels - and their construction began on 18.02.2009 and had 15.11.2010 as due date. Within the same contract, another similar vessel follows to be delivered until 15.11.2010.
The patrolling and intervention vessels will perform specific missions of the Romanian Border Police: intervention, interception, pursuit in the inland maritime waters, territorial sea, contiguous area and exclusive economic area of Romania.
Technical characteristics:
Length: 26.7 m Weight: 60 tons Maximum speed: 44 Knots Autonomy: 700 nautical miles Engines: 2 x MTU 2000 Crew: 13 sailorsThese vessels will have an important role in the surveillance of the E.U. border, future border of Schengen area, having at the same time the necessary capacities to execute long term missions, at long distances from the shore, in the contiguous area and exclusive economic area of Romania and to receive / transmit data and information to the surveillance and control system.
They will also be part of the European Patrol Network within the joint European operations organized under FRONTEX aegis - European Agency for Surveillance and Control of E.U. external borders.
The maritime vessels will complete the offshore extension of observation radius of existing surveillance and control system, SCOMAR, realized by the Romanian Border Police in a project financed previously through European funds, being one of the most performing maritime border surveillance systems in Europe.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
SCOMAR is an operational surveillance system, based on state-of-the-art technology allowing early detection, pursuit, recognition and identification of vessels carrying out illegal trafficking activities at the Black Sea .
The complex integrated system for observation, surveillance and control of traffic at the Black Sea (SCOMAR) has as main objectives the observation, surveillance and control of the Romanian border at the Black Sea.
The structure of the Complex System for Observation, Surveillance and Control of Traffic at the Black Sea allows:
Improvement of surveillance process of the state border in the maritime area; Improvement of navigation security in the operational area of the system; Decrease of illegal activities in the territorial sea and in the contiguous area; Rendering continuous surveillance in the covered area; Creating a database regarding the maritime activity in the sea area; Decrease the number of patrol vessels, surveillance missions and, thus an important economy of fuel and resources.SCOMAR is prepared for surveillance and monitoring, permanently (24 hours / day, 7 days / week), providing a tactical image of the water surface in the maritime territorial area, contiguous area and exclusive economic area (up to 100 nautical miles offshore), of the air activity and the land situation.
In order to achieve this purpose, the proposed system was designed to guarantee early detection of vessels and boats so that they are localized before nearing the coast shore and thus, ensuring the essential reaction time for the Border Police in order to undertake the necessary measures.