In the second supplemental budget of 2009, the Government of Finland reserved 57 million euro for the procurement of a new offshore patrol vessel for the Finnish Border Guard.

[11] On 21 December 2011, the Finnish Border Guard officially awarded the contract for the construction of the new offshore patrol vessel, which would provide over 400 man-years of work to the builder and had a domestic content of about 90 percent, to STX Finland Rauma shipyard with the initial delivery date set in November 2013.

[14] The steel cutting ceremony, which marks the official start of production, was held in Rauma on 22 October 2012[15] and the keel of vessel, identified by its yard number as "newbuilding 1385", was laid on 25 February 2013.

[17] On 2 August 2013, the ship was launched and her sponsor, Minister of the Interior Päivi Räsänen, gave her the name Turva, Finnish for "protection" or "security".

The old vessels were not strengthened for navigation in ice and their oil spill prevention and response capability was not deemed adequate for dealing with the increased traffic in the Gulf of Finland.

[9] On 16 September 2013, STX Finland decided to close the shipyard in June 2014 and for a while it looked like Turva would be the last new vessel built in Rauma where ships have been constructed for over 300 years.

[19] For surveillance, Turva has a Cassidian TRS-3D radar—the same used in the Hamina-class missile boats and Hämeenmaa-class minelayers of the Finnish Navy—and extensive command and control systems which allow the ship to direct large rescue operations both in the air and on the surface.

[16] Turva is powered by three environmentally friendly Wärtsilä 34DF series dual-fuel engines capable of burning both diesel fuel as well as liquified natural gas (LNG).

In the forward engine room, two 6-cylinder 6L34DF generating sets with an output of 3,000 kW (4,000 hp) each produce power for two electrically driven Rolls-Royce Azipull AZP120CP Z-drive azimuth thrusters.

[30] Since the azimuth thrusters are powered by electric motors and the centerline shaft is mechanically coupled to the main engine, the propulsion system as a whole could be referred to as "combined diesel-electric and diesel" (CODLAD).

Turva is the first ship fitted with this type of propulsion arrangement—two azimuth thrusters and a centerline shaft—which was originally developed for icebreakers and icegoing LNG carriers.

[12] With a bollard pull of approximately 100 tonnes, Turva is capable of towing even the largest tankers regularly sailing in the Baltic Sea.