In parallel with the soaring amount of maritime security missions, the request for Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPV), either for navies or coast guards is significantly growing -faster than any other type of naval vessel. The market includes both the lower-tier (i.e. comparably smaller or less capable vessels) and the upper-tier (sizes often comparable to a frigate, and a larger amount of systems and capabilities). The boundaries of the definition itself of Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPV) are quite blurred: according to the different national realities, sometimes an OPV is considered a replacement-complement for more heavily armed corvettes or frigates; sometimes mostly tasked with more benign roles, such as SAR and Pollution Control. These big differences are unavoidably reflected into the design requirements.
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