Sa’ar 62 OPV
Janes is reporting the Azerbaijan Coast Guard is procuring twelve new Israeli designed vessels to be built in Azerbaijan. These include six 62 meter OPVs (203 foot, the Greek ships of this class are about 450 tons full load) based on the Sa’ar 4.5 missile corvette and six 31.2 meter (102 foot, 95 ton) Shaldag patrol vessels.
SHALDAG Fast Patrol Craft (earlier, slightly smaller version)
Azerbaijan is one of five countries bordering the land locked (and reportedly oil rich) Caspian Sea. The others are Russia to the North, Iran to the South, and Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan on the other side of the Caspian. Russia has several missile corvettes and Iran has both corvettes and small submarines in the Caspian.
Azerbaijan’s total EEZ and total internal area is only 86,600 sq. km. The comparable figure for the US is over 250 times larger.
I’m afraid this may be another area where, in the not too distant future, Americans will get a geography lesson via troubling news reports.
