Austrian marine equipment Palfinger Marine announced on 18 September that it has been contracted by Singapore’s Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA) to supply its proprietary Slipway Systems for the Republic of Singapore Navy’s (RSN) Multi-Role Combat Vessel (MRCV) programme.
The vessels, which are designed by Swedish defence prime Saab in collaboration with Denmark’s Odense Maritime Technology (OMT), but built by Singapore shipbuilder ST Engineering Marine, will each be fitted with two large PQBS-SR Slipway Systems and stern doors supplied by Palfinger Marine.
The Slipway Systems are expected to be delivered from 2026-2031 and includes lifetime-support from the company. These feature a series of powered rollers which secure and drives the hull of a crewed or uncrewed watercraft up the mothership’s slipway.
“The Palfinger Marine developed Slipway Systems are proven means of launching and recovering boats at sea, eliminating the use of any mechanical connection such as lifting solutions or hooks during operations,” said the company in a statement.
“This minimizes the need for manual assistance and thus also the risk for potentially critical situations during launch and recovery operations,” it added.
The latest success is the second major RSN contract secured by Palfinger Marine, which earlier supplied a similar system for service’s eight Littoral Mission Vessels (LMV). Each LMV is equipped with two Slipway Systems.
Singapore’s Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) earlier announced that the MRCVs will function as mother ships that would host a range of unmanned air, surface, and subsurface vehicles. The MRCVs will be delivered progressively to the RSN from 2028 onwards by ST Engineering Marine, which is responsible for the detailed design and build of the six vessels.
The MRCVs will also be designed to undertake a wide spectrum of missions from “peace to war”, although MINDEF has yet to provide specific details. However, the ability of the MRCVs to embark unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) provide some possible hints of potential roles. For example, the RSN has already fielded 16 m-class USVs that have been optimised for mine countermeasures (MCM) and maritime security (MARSEC) missions.
Neither the contract value nor detailed specifications of the new vessels have been disclosed to date.
by Jr Ng
