Spain’s Navantia to deliver Moulay Hassan I patrol vessel to Morocco without official ceremony

The Royal Moroccan Navy is due to take delivery on Thursday of the offshore patrol vessel Moulay Hassan I, built by Spanish shipbuilder Navantia. The handover will take place without an official ceremony after the planned event was canceled against the backdrop of the Ceuta crisis.

The two sides are expected to sign the formal handover documents, after which the vessel will be cleared to leave the San Fernando shipyard, where it was built over approximately three years, according to Spanish sources.

The project required more than one million working hours and supported around 1,100 direct, indirect and induced jobs across engineering and production.

The vessel was launched in May 2025 before undergoing harbor navigation tests, sea trials and trials of its unmanned engine room. Moroccan representatives attended the various stages of the delivery process.

Navantia had planned to complete the handover over the summer with an official ceremony, but those arrangements were canceled following the mass crossings into Ceuta and the resulting tensions.