Euronaval 24: ADSB announces partners for RABDAN OPV

By Sam Cranny-Evans, published 8th November 2024. 

Abu Dhabi Ship Building (ADSB), which is part of the UAE’s Edge Group has signed a trio of partnerships during the Euronaval 2024 exhibition in Paris to equip the company’s new RABDAN FA-400 fast attack vessel. 

Partnerships were announced on the 8th November with Canadian company, OSI Maritime Systems, which is providing navigation systems for the vessel, as well as SIATT from Brazil, which will provide the MANSUP surface-to-surface missile launcher, and Dynateq International from South Africa, which will provide main and side-gun systems for the RABDAN. Moreover, French company Lacroix signed a strategic partnership with ADSB on 6th November to integrate its decoy system onto the RABDAN. 

The keel for the RABDAN was laid in October this year and the first vessel is expected to be displayed at the Navdex 2025 exhibition in Abu Dhabi.  It is designed to be a 45 m long fast patrol ship with an 8.3 m beam and 2 m draught. It will have a crew of 30 and a top speed when fully loaded of 28 knots, increasing to more than 30 knots when half loaded. At a speed of 14 knots the ship will have a range of 1,500 nautical miles. 

It is not clear which system OSI will be delivering, however, the company offers a range of navigation capabilities that could be relevant to the RABDAN, including its Integrated Navigation and Tactical System, which is designed to integrate different sensor feeds,  including radar, which can be overlaid on 3D images to help with navigation.  

The ADSB product description for the RABDAN indicates that it will be armed with 30 mm cannon and 12.7 mm heavy machine guns, which indicates that Dynateq may be providing its Super Sea Rogue remote controlled weapon station (RCWS) available in 30 x 173 mm and 30 x 113 mm calibres, as well as its Rogue RCWS armed with a 12.7 mm heavy machine gun. The 30 mm cannon is shown at the front of the RABDAN and the 12.7 mm machine gun at the rear, in ADSB imagery. 

The RABDAN OPV will carry the MANSUP anti-ship missile, which may include the MANSUP ER with a range of 200 km. Credit: Edge Group.

The original MANSUP is an anti-ship missile with a range of 70 km and transonic (close to the speed of sound) flight speed. It employs inertial navigation with a radar seeker for the terminal phase and can fly sea skimming profiles. The guidance section, telemetry head, and rear section including actuators and interface with the launcher are provided by SIATT, which is 50% owned by the Edge Group. The Missiles and Weapons cluster of Edge also offers the MANSUP-ER, which has an extended range of 200 km, which can navigate using 3D waypoints and is armed with a 150 kg warhead. The MANSUP-ER can achieve top speeds of 950 km/h compared to the 850 km/h of the original MANSUP. 

The overall armament of the ship indicates that it will be a capable vessel, able to hold larger ships at risk from long ranges, providing that it is accompanied by suitably effective reconnaissance systems. It will also be able to provide routine patrol and interdiction activities, which are increasingly important in the Red Sea and Straits of Hormuz.