QUITO, Ecuador - Ecuador's naval shipyard, Astilleros Navales Ecuatorianos (ASTINAVE), has delivered a fourth Stan Patrol 2606 vessel to the Coast Guard. The Isla Baltra was delivered on March 11.
ASTINAVE is building the vessels locally under a license agreement with Dutch shipbuilder, Damen Shipyards. Plans call for a total of eight in the class to eventually be built.
A contract for the first three Stan Patrol vessels was signed in September 2011. The first vessel, the Isla Santa Cruz, was handed over to the coastguard in January 2013. The Isla Santa Cruz is equipped with modern navigation, communications, and surveillance systems such as the Maretron Vessel Monitoring Control System and the Alphatron Marine VB. The other two vessels, the Isla Marchena, and Isla la Pinta, are now in operation as well.
The contract for the construction of the fourth vessel was signed in June 2014. The Isla Baltra measures 26 meters long and six meters wide. It can remain at sea for up to three days.
The new vessels are part of the National Directorate of Aquatic Spaces' (DIRNEA) plan to strengthen surveillance capabilities in order to combat illegal activities along the coast. The patrol vessels will be used by the coastguard.
