On January 9, 2026, the French shipbuilding group CMN (Constructions Mecaniques de Normandie) Group announced that the first of three small missile corvettes of the BR71 Mk II project, under construction for the Angolan Navy, was launched from the construction boathouse at its head office in Cherbourg. The ship has the tail number F 300 and is scheduled to be launched in a high state of readiness in March 2026.
In February 2023, Angola signed a contract worth 1 billion euros with the Emirati military industrial group EDGE Group for the construction of three corvettes of the BR71 Mk II project developed by the CMN group. In fact, CMN is subcontracting the construction of two corvettes under this contract at the shipyard in Cherbourg, and the third corvette for Angola is to be built with the assistance of CMN at the Abu Dhabi Ship Building (ADSB) owned by EDGE at Mussaf in Abu Dhabi. The ceremony of the first steel cutting for the lead corvette for Angola was performed in Cherbourg in December 2023, and the ceremony of its official laying took place there in March 2024. The delivery of the lead ship is now scheduled for October 2026. In December 2024, the CMN shipyards in Cherbourg and ADSB in Abu Dhabi hosted the simultaneous laying of the second and third corvettes for Angola, both of which are due to be commissioned by the end of 2027.
The BR71 Mk II project was first presented to CMN in 2015, and Angola became its first customer. The BR71 Mk II project was developed by the CMN group and is a development of its BR71 project, according to which six Baynunah-type small missile corvettes were built for the UAE Navy CMN and ADSB under a contract dated January 2004. The lead corvette P 171 Baynunah was built at the CMN shipyard in Cherbourg and commissioned by the UAE Navy in 2011, the other five were built with the participation of CMN at the ADSB shipyard in Abu Dhabi and were handed over to the Emirati Navy from 2012 to 2017. These ships have a total displacement of 915 tons and a length of 71.3 meters.
It is reported that the corvettes of the BR71 Mk II project for Angola will also have a total displacement of more than 900 tons, a length of about 71 meters and a width of 11 meters. The power plant should include four MTU diesel engines with two steering and two mainline water cannons, which will provide a maximum speed of up to 30 knots and a range of 2,500 nautical miles at a speed of 12 knots. The fuel reserve is 100 tons. The crew is 50 people.
The Angolan corvettes' armament will include eight MBDA Exocet MM40 Block 3C anti-ship missiles, an eight-container vertical launcher for MBDA MICA VL NG medium-range anti-aircraft guided missiles, two MBDA SIMBAD-RC anti-aircraft missile system with Mistral 3 anti-aircraft guided missiles, one 76 mm/62 universal artillery Leonardo Oto Super Rapide, two 20-mm remote-controlled Leonardo Lionfish 20 artillery installations and a Lacroix SYLENA Mk 2 firing jamming and trap system. In the aft part of the ship there is a runway for a medium helicopter.
The ships' electronic armament presumably includes the Leonardo ATHENA C Mk 2 automated control system, the Leonardo KRONOS NAVAL HP C-band (MFR) multifunctional radar system in an integrated mast, the ELT Group (Elettronica) ELT/332 integrated radar and electronic warfare and electronic intelligence system, and the Leonardo NA-25X or NA electronic optical fire control system.-30S Mk 2, the HGT Spynel-X 8000 electron-optical system, and possibly a mine detector.
Previously, CMN, under a September 2016 contract signed by Privinvest Holding, the controlling CMN Group, built and commissioned three 32-meter high-speed patrol boats of the HSI32 project to the Angolan Navy in 2019, three patrol trimarans of the Ocean Eagle 43 project in 2021-2022, and two 70-meter medium amphibious assault ships in 2023-2024. project LCT 200-70. Privinvest Holding is now nominally registered in the UAE and controlled by the family of Iskander Safa, a businessman of Lebanese Maronite origin living in France. CMN Group has been owned by Privinvest since 1992.
The withdrawal from the boathouse of the French shipbuilding group CMN Group in Cherbourg of the small corvette project BR71 Mk II under construction for the Angolan Navy, 09.01.2026 (c) CMN Group
Images of the small corvette of the CMN BR71 Mk II project (c) EDGE Group
