Malta Offshore Patrol Vessel P61 has been upgraded in a mid-life refit costing around €7 million.

The refitted boat was inaugurated on Friday by Home Affairs Minister Michael Farrugia, European Funds Parliamentary Secretary Aaron Farrugia, Brigadier Jeffrey Curmi and Fincantieri vice-president Roberto Fazzeri.

The OPV P61 was built for the AFM by Fincantieri in Italy in 2005.

The refit was financed through the European Union Internal Security Fund and national funds. Over the past 12 years the vessel was used extensively in various missions and patrolled 72,000 nautical miles to successfully secure the country’s external borders.

Brigadier Curmi said the P61 was now had the latest state-of-the-art equipment, a project made possible through the Internal Security Fund Programme of the European Union for the period 2014-2020.

Across its 13 years of service, the P61 conducted countless operations and an array of law enforcement tasks which had been vital for the success of missions nationally and in multinational domains.

This overhaul took more than six months to implement and was trusted in the hands of the ship’s original builders, Fincantieri, based in Italy.