Chilean Fleet Received Two Former Australian Frigates

22 April 2020

FFG 11 and FFG 14 of the Chilean Navy (photo : The FFG Yard)

On April 15, 2020, the ceremony of transferring the Chilean Navy to the frigates FFG 05 HMAS Melbourne and FFG 06 HMAS Newcastle class of Adelaide (American type Oliver Hazard Perry) from the Australian fleet took place at the Australian naval base Watson in Sydney on Sydney April 15, 2020 . Both ships withdrawn from service in 2019 were bought by Chile in December 2019 and received the historical names for the Chilean fleet FFG 14 Almirante Latorre and FFG 11 Captain Prat, respectively.

Both ships were purchased under the Puente IV program to replace the Chilean fleet of two former Dutch frigates of the Jacob van Heemskerck type (type L) built in the mid-1980s, purchased by Chile in 2005 and included in the Chilean Navy under the same names and airborne numbers FFG 14 Almirante Latorre and FFG Prat 11 Captain . Both of them were withdrawn from the Chilean fleet in December 2019.

Two ex Australian frigates will replace two ex Dutch frigates in Chilean Navy fleet (photo : Reddit)

The Australian Navy had six frigates of the Adelaide class (Oliver Hazard Perry class) , of which four were built in the United States in the early 1980s (all were decommissioned from 2008 to 2017), and the last two were Melbourne and Newcastle were built in Australia under an American license and commissioned in 1992-1993. Both were withdrawn from the Australian fleet in November and June 2019, respectively. It should be noted that in the early 2010s, both of these ships in Australia underwent modernization, with the renewal of some of the electronic and fire weapons and the installation of an additional 8-charge vertical launcher Mk 41 for the ESSM air defense system. Interest in acquiring these two frigates, which are relatively young and in good technical condition, has been expressed by several countries since 2017, including Poland and Greece, but in the end they were bought by Chile.

The date of arrival of purchased frigates from Australia to Chile is still unknown, since on March 31, coronavirus was detected in 15 Chilean crews arriving in Australia, and now Watson’s base is closed for quarantine. Characteristically, the transfer of frigates did not find any reflection on the official resources of the Chilean Navy.

(BMPD)