To comply with U.S. regulations, intermarine established a shipyard in U.S.A. where 8 out of the 12 minehunters of the Osprey Class were built (the remaining 4 have been built under licence, using intermarine design, in Avondale lnc. shipyards, selected by the U.S. Navy as "second source").
The first ship of the Class was delivered in 1991, the last one in 1998.
The Osprey, with her length of 57 m. and a displacement of almost 900 t, is the largest GRP ship ever built in the world so far.
The propulsion system consists of two lsotta Fraschini Diesel Engines driving two cycloidal propellers Voith Schneider: this propulsion is used for both the minehunting and transit phases and gives the ship a speed of almost 13 knots.
The Combat System consists mainly of a Unisys Command and Control system, of a Raytheon Variable depth Sonar (VDS), and of one Mine Disposal Vehicle AN/SLQ - 48. No deck armament is installed.
The Osprey, the first ship of the class, was submitted at the and of 1995 to a full size shock test campaign at the Aberdeen Test Centre: the ship passed the test without suffering any significant damage, demonstrating once again the validity of the intermarine concept.