EIB finances construction of three Navy hydro- oceanographic vessels
The European Investment Bank has agreed a loan of €220 million to the Italian Ministry of Defence to finance the construction of three Navy hydro- oceanographic vessels.
The vessels will be used by the Italian Navy’s Hydrographic Institute, based in Genoa. The project concerns the construction of one big and two smaller vessels, which will replace those currently in service (Magnaghi, Aretusa and Galatea) that have reached or will soon reach the end of their operating life.
These three vessels will carry out mostly public service activities: climate research in the marine environment and navigation security through seabed mapping needed to produce official nautical charts for Italy’s sea regions.
The largest of the three vessels will be used particularly for hydrographic and oceanographic research in the Mediterranean Sea, the world’s oceans and the Arctic and Antarctic regions. The two smaller vessels are essentially intended to be deployed in the Mediterranean Sea. These three vessels will be built between 2021 and 2027.
The term of the loan is 25 years, in line with the economic life of the vessels.
