NEWTOWN, Conn. - The Portuguese defense procurement arm, the General Directorate of Infrastructure and Defense Equipment (Direcao-Geral de Armamento e Infra-Estruturas de Defesa, or DGAEID), is currently negotiating the purchase of four ex-Royal Danish Navy Flyvefisken-class (Stanflex 300) patrol boats from Denmark's Ministry of Defense.
The modular Stanflex (Standard Flex 300) vessel was conceived by Danish designers in the 1980s as a means of maximizing a ships utility through the use of a modular, container-based approach allowing the boat to switch mission-specific equipment in and out while deployed at sea. Denmark ordered as many as 13 of the ships for the Royal Danish Navy between 1985 and 1990, with all but two (now used as minehunting/diver vessels) retired.
Portugal plans to spend around EUR25 million ($32 million) for the ships with hope for delivery prior to the end of the year. Financial pressures have prevented the Portuguese Navy from acquiring as many as six additional new-build NPO 2000 (Viana do Castelo class) offshore patrol vessels from local Estaleiros Navais de Viana do Castelo (ENVC) shipyard. An aging inventory and the stress placed on an overworked fleet has left Portugal's Defense Ministry scrambling for affordable options with which to plug emerging capabilities gaps. Low-cost second-hand purchases of capable platforms from allied partners and upgrades to older existing warships have been the Defense Ministry's logical recourse.
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