During the Euronaval 2026 show in Paris, Fincantieri, Navantia and Naval Group signed an agreement to move to the second phase of the European Patrol Corvette (EPC2) program, the project aimed at developing a new generation of modular, multirole patrol corvettes (MMPC, Modular and Multirole Patrol Corvette, the official name of the program under the EDF).

The agreement marks the transition from Phase 1 (EPC1), which focused on concept study, preliminary design, development of key technologies and definition of common methodologies, standards and requirements, to Phase 2 (EPC2), which will take the program toward industrialization, with completion of the preliminary and detailed design of the ships.

The program will develop a common Full Combat Multipurpose (FCM) platform, which will serve as the basis for a new class of corvettes. The design will be modular and adaptable, allowing individual national navies to tailor the platform to their own operational requirements while maintaining high levels of interoperability and standardization.

In parallel, on the sidelines of Euronaval, Navantia and Fincantieri signed a Memorandum of Understanding to establish an equal-share Joint Venture, which will serve as the common industrial and commercial base for the respective national EPC programs and related export opportunities. The protocol contains the main understandings reached by the parties and follows on from the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the two countries on February 13.

The JV will be the core of the EPC program: it will assume overall responsibility for development and act as the contracting entity for the related contracts. It will also bring together the main industrial and commercial activities needed to carry out the programs, ranging from coordination of functional design engineering and procurement of common ship elements to co-production models, lifecycle support and export opportunities, while promoting greater standardization of the platform.

The French participation in the industrial consortium, however, remains to be defined for the time being: according to the press release, Naval Group is currently evaluating whether to join.

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