Ghana Navy Takes Delivery Of Two Patrol Vessels

The Ghana Navy took delivery last week of two ex-German Navy fast attack craft, GNS YAA ASANTEWAA and GNS NAA GBEWAA, at its Sekondi Naval Base, reports defence Web in its latest bulletin.
The crew of the two patrol boats spent three months in Germany undergoing intensive training before sailing the craft to Ghana. The handing over ceremony took place a Neeue Tadewerft, Wilhelmshaven early in July.

The Ghana Navy took delivery last week of two ex-German Navy fast attack craft, GNS YAA ASANTEWAA and GNS NAA GBEWAA, at its Sekondi Naval Base, reports defence Web in its latest bulletin.
The crew of the two patrol boats spent three months in Germany undergoing intensive training before sailing the craft to Ghana. The handing over ceremony took place a Neeue Tadewerft, Wilhelmshaven early in July.
According to Rear Admiral Matthew Quashie, the Ghana Navy Chief of Naval Staff, the vessels would be used in combating piracy and to protect Ghana’s emerging oil installations.
The two patrol boats are described as being of Type 143A Gepard fast attack craft. Each vessel is 58 metres long and 398-tons. They underwent a complete refurbishment prior to being handed over. Their delivery brings the number of vessels acquired by the Ghana Navy to seven in the last three years.
In February this year four new patrol ships were commissioned – BLIKA P34, GARINGA P35, CHEMLE P36 and EHWOR P37. These were built by China’s China’s Poly Technologies Incorporated.
In January last year the Ghana Navy commissioned GNS STEPHEN OTU P33, a refurbished Sea Dolphin-class (PKM) fast attack craft donated by South Korea. Meanwhile Janes has reported that it believes Ghana has ordered two 62-m patrol craft from South Korea for delivery by July 2013. Ghana is also expanding its naval dockyard in the southwest of the country.
Ghana’s Navy is relatively small, with 2 000 personnel, according to the IISS’s 2011 The Military Balance. It operates two 1940s-era Balsam class vessels previously operated by the US Coast Guard, four fast attack craft built by Lurssen (two PB 45 Dzata class and two PB 57 Achimota class vessels) and a single PB Mk III inshore patrol boat that was transferred from the US Navy in 2001.
In its efforts to secure its maritime domain, Ghana is in the process of setting up a vessel traffic management and information system (VTMIS) to provide electronic monitoring of its entire coast. This will include coastal radar stations with command and control centres. source defenceWeb