The UK Ministry of Defence has contracted shipbuilding and support services contractor VT Group to provide the Royal Navy with a new 80m Offshore Patrol Vessel (Helicopter) - OPV(H) - to be operated under lease for Falkland Island patrol duties through to early 2012. Production work on the new vessel - expected to be named HMS Clyde - is due to start in June at VT's Portsmouth shipbuilding facility. The ship, to be built to VT's account, will be the first warship built at Portsmouth since the Leander class frigate HMS Andromeda was completed in 1968. Delivery of the OPV (H) to the Royal Navy is scheduled for October 2006, with the ship entering service, after completing trials, in the second quarter of 2007. The ship will be chartered to the Ministry of Defence for an initial period through to March 2012. At the end of that period the Ministry will have the option to extend the lease, buy the vessel outright or return it to VT.
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