Any word on Iraqi ships in Italy?

[annati]

Iraqi Corvettes

Unfortunately the two Iraqi corvettes still in Italy can't be sold to Malaysia or anybody else, because they belong to Iraq, not to Italy.
There are ongoing talks in order to decide whether they should be refurbished (and, most important, who would pay the bill).
The Italian Government is drastically short of resources.
The Italian shipyards would like to sell some new OPV.
Iraqis don't want to put money into warships, because they have, clearly enough, much more troubles on the ground than at sea.
The result, up to now, is that everything is still, like Contedicavour reported.

 

[Big-E]

Iraqis don't want to put money into warships, because they have, clearly enough, much more troubles on the ground than at sea.

As long as Combined Task Force 58 is patrolling off Basra they won't need any warships. They won't be there forever.

 

[contedicavour]

Unfortunately the two Iraqi corvettes still in Italy can't be sold to Malaysia or anybody else, because they belong to Iraq, not to Italy.
There are ongoing talks in order to decide whether they should be refurbished (and, most important, who would pay the bill).
The Italian Government is drastically short of resources.
The Italian shipyards would like to sell some new OPV.
Iraqis don't want to put money into warships, because they have, clearly enough, much more troubles on the ground than at sea.
The result, up to now, is that everything is still, like Contedicavour reported.

I guess the Iraqi government would be willing to cede its nominal control over these 2 corvettes in exchange for some new patrol boats more suited for controlling shipping around Umm Qasr. In this case the ships could be renovated and sold to Malaysia. The equipment is still very much valid.

By the way, technically our government could even charge the Iraqi one with the costs we've incurred for keeping the corvettes and their personnel in our La Spezia-Muggiano harbor facilities... for an amazing 15 years !!

cheers

 

[contedicavour]

As long as Combined Task Force 58 is patrolling off Basra they won't need any warships. They won't be there forever.

I believe Iraq should buy itself ships such as Kuwait's, ie relatively small and fast patrol boats. There are many second-hand Lurssen FACs around (Germany is selling several to North African countries as we speak) and Combattante II and III class FACs.
Fincantieri's proposal from Italy is the Saettia class, 58-metre small corvettes that are now entering service in the Coast Guard. Vickers is proposing its Vita class (already sold to Qatar and Greece), and France would love to sell some new Combattantes...
As long as oil is above 70 dollars a barrel, there's a potentially interesting market there...

cheers

 

[Jtimes2]

Unfortunately the two Iraqi corvettes still in Italy can't be sold to Malaysia or anybody else, because they belong to Iraq, not to Italy.
There are ongoing talks in order to decide whether they should be refurbished (and, most important, who would pay the bill).
The Italian Government is drastically short of resources.
The Italian shipyards would like to sell some new OPV.
Iraqis don't want to put money into warships, because they have, clearly enough, much more troubles on the ground than at sea.
The result, up to now, is that everything is still, like Contedicavour reported.

Cool, thanks for the info. I had read a similar thing regarding the OPV's; apparently Fiancateri wants to sell Iraq 1 or 2 newbuild OPV's for cash less the scrap value of the two corvettes. They are in pretty rough shape, apparently the La Spezia Harbour Board is funding basic shipkeeping so they don't sink pierside. Like you said, I can't imagine Iraq would actually want the two corvettes as they need to concentrate their $ on land forces.