Saudi Arabia Launches First Avante 2200-Class Corvette HMS AlMadinah

Saudi Arabia launched the corvette HMS AlMadinah as part of the second phase of the Sarawat program.

This was reported by the Saudi Arabian state news agency—Saudi Press Agency (SPA).

The launch took place after the hull assembly phase was completed on June 19, 2026. The ship will now proceed to systems integration, port trials, and sea trials.

The corvette is part of a series of three multi-purpose combat ships of the Avante 2200 project from the Spanish company Navantia. Along with it, the fleet will receive the ships HMS Neom and HMS AlUla.

Saudi Arabia signed a contract with Navantia for their delivery in December 2024, continuing the previous phase of the program, which provided the navy with five combat ships.

The project is proceeding on schedule. Part of the construction work on the second and third ships is planned to be carried out in Saudi Arabia with the participation of Saudi Arabian Military Industries, which will integrate the Hazm combat management system with the ships’ armament.

It is worth noting that Saudi Arabia has previously ordered corvettes of this design.

The Avante 2200 corvette program for the Royal Saudi Navy was launched as part of the Al-Sarawat project, which is part of a large-scale fleet modernization effort. The first contract covered five ships, which were built at the Spanish Navantia shipyards in Cádiz and San Fernando.

Construction began in 2019, and the first corvette in the series was launched in 2020. Subsequent ships were launched at intervals of approximately several months, allowing for the rapid formation of a full series of multi-purpose combat vessels. The last ship of the first batch was delivered to the navy in 2024.

Each corvette underwent a full production cycle: steel cutting, block forming, hull assembly, combat systems integration, port trials, and sea trials. A significant portion of the armament and control systems was developed through joint Spanish-Saudi integration, specifically via joint ventures with Saudi Arabian Military Industries.

Brief technical specifications:

Displacement: 2,500 metric tons;

Length: 98.9 meters;

Speed: 25 knots;

Crew: 92 personnel.

Armament: 76 mm Leonardo Super Rapid artillery mount;

• Rheinmetall Oerlikon Millennium 35 mm anti-aircraft gun;
• four Boeing Harpoon Block II anti-ship missile launchers;
• sixteen vertical launchers for Raytheon ESSM air defense missiles;
• two triple 324 mm torpedo tubes;
• two remote combat modules.