Ghana to receive Flex Fighter security vessels

A still from a corporate video shows Flex Fighter armoured crew boats. (Penguin Shipyard International)

The Ghana Navy will soon receive four Flex Fighter vessels, the Ghanaian newspaper The Graphic reported on 5 January.

It cited Egbert Faibille, the chief executive of the country's Petroleum Commission, as saying the vessels were part of a wider plan to equip the navy so it can provide security for offshore petroleum infrastructure.

The Graphic illustrated its report with photographs of six Flex Fighters, one with the Ghana Navy name GNS Volta , at an undisclosed location that was presumably Singapore's Tuas Basin, where the Penguin Shipyard that makes the vessels is based.

The Flex Fighter is an armoured version of Penguin's Flex-40 crew boat aimed at offshore oil companies operating in high-threat environments. Several are already operated by Nigerian security companies.

The Flex Fighter is 40 m long, can reach a maximum speed of 28 kt, has cabins for eight crew and 12 security personnel, and can carry 54 passengers and 60 tonnes of cargo, according to Penguin. It comes with three machine guns mounts and a wheelhouse with STANAG Level 1 protection as standard, with additional mounts and armour being optional.