SHIPBUILDERS VT Group is in negotiations with MoD bosses for the contract to build a new 80 metre offshore patrol vessel for the Royal Navy.

The programme is expected to be worth an initial total of about £30m.

The Hedge End based company will build the ship and charter it to the Royal Navy for an initial period of six years after handing it over in 2006.

The ship is designed to replace the Navy's two existing Castle Class offshore patrol vessels and will carry out the role of Falkland Islands patrol vessel.

VT, which is currently working on sections of the Navy's Type 45 destroyers, will also be responsible for providing a full support service to maintain the ship so that she is available for sea for more than 300 days a year. The firm hopes modern automated equipment and commercial maintenance techniques will allow it to guarantee the availability previously provided by a pair of vessels with just a single ship.

VT Group chief executive Paul Lester said: "This programme will provide a significant boost to our shipbuilding throughput at Portsmouth, supplementing the work that we are carrying out on the Type 45 destroyer. It also underlines the success of the PPP model that we have introduced on the initial River Class ships."

The new design will be based on the River Class, which were built by VT and are currently under charter to the MOD. The "Batch 2" River Class will be enhanced with a helicopter deck capable of accepting helicopters up to the size of the new Merlin aircraft, and surveillance radar.

VT, formerly Vosper Thornycroft, quit Southampton earlier this year for a new, hi-tech manufacturing plant in Portsmouth.