Eight vessels were officially commissioned by the Bahrain Naval Force (BNF) on 9 February, including RBNS Al-Zubara (80), formerly the UK Royal Navy's River-class patrol ship HMS Clyde, which was handed over to the BNF in Portsmouth in August 2020. Coverage of the commissioning ceremony showed Al-Zubara has now been rearmed with an Aselsan 25 mm Stop remotely controlled weapon station (RCWS), .50 cal machine guns (MGs), and M134 Miniguns. Aselsan announced in May 2020 that it had a contract to supply an unspecified number of unidentified RCWSs to the BNF. The commissioning ceremony showed that Stop RCWSs have also been fitted along with .50 cal MGs to two other new vessels that the BNF was not previously known to have ordered. These are 35 m Fast Patrol Vessels (FPV35s), the first of a new type made by the US company Swiftships, called RBNS Mashhoor (12) and RBNS Al-Areen (13). In its promotional information for the FPV35, Swiftships lists the Raytheon Griffin laser-guided missile system and an Aselsan Smash remote-controlled 30 mm gun as its armament, along with Raytheon Anschuetz's Synapsis Tactical Command System (SYNTACS): a modular command-and-control application specifically designed for small naval platforms to integrate their sensors, weapons, and navigation systems.
展开▼
