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Ultraking101 — [SB Scale - Modern Corvette] ARA Guerrico Corvette

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Published: 2022-08-02 00:53:40 +0000 UTC; Views: 4613; Favourites: 51; Downloads: 16
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Description In the late 1990s, the South African Navy had embroiled itself in sandal with French shipbuilder DCNS and German shipbuilder TKMS. South Africa was in the middle of a new procurement program for frigates and had backed out of a deal with DCNS in favor to buy the new MEKO A-200SAN design. In order to not fully fall out of favor with the French, South Africa signed a deal to procure 3x corvettes of the CL-2700SA design. The lead ship of the class was named SAS Transvaal, named after the A69 class that never entered service.

On December 17, 2007 the first Transvaal class arrived in Cape Town for entry into service, however she would never see service with the South African Navy as 6 days later, the South African economy suffered a critical collapse and all non-essential military deployments were put on indefinite pause. SAS Transvaal would subsequently put into temporary reserve to try and help the budget while the Valour class would cover the ASW/Patrol role that Transvaal would have filled. After 3 years, the inflation crisis caused by the global recession as well as South Africa's impending default saw them desiring to sell off assets that had never been used or were simply too old to be any use. South Africa subsequently approached Argentina for a transfer of the SAS Transvaal and her 2 sister ships still under construction in France for 1.15 billion (350m for SAS Transvaal and 400m for the remaining 2x unfinished in France).

Argentina agreed to the purchase of the 3x vessels, with the class to replace the Drummond class corvettes, ironically a French produced corvette originally meant for South Africa that was then transferred to Argentina, The SAS Transvaal was renamed to the ARA Guerrico (P-51) after one of the Drummond class she was to replace ARA Guerrico (P-31). The Argentines would also modify the class to fit their naval requirements, replacing the Umkhonto missiles with the American ESSM, they did however opt to keep the Denel 35mm as the ARA found it actually to be suitable for the role of CIWS, and ordered 2x more for the remaining of the class. Eventually in 2019 the Argentine Navy would retire the Exocet missile in favor of the new Norwegian NSM missile. As of 2022, the Argentine Navy has received all 3x corvettes.

Guerrico Class
ARA Guerrico (P-51) commissioned April 2010
ARA Cánepa (P-52) commissioned May 2010
ARA Paraná (P-53) commissioned January 2011

General characteristics:

Displacement: 2,700t
Length: 103 m
Beam: 14.6 m
Draught: 5.6 m
Propulsion Method: CODLAD
Propulsion Systems: 2x SEMT-PIELSTICK PA 6-280 Diesel Engine
Speed: 28 kn
Range: 3,500 nmi
Endurance: 35 days
Small Boat: 1x RHIB

Armament:
1x OTO Melara 76mm Super Rapid
1x Denel 35mm Dual Purpose Gun CIWS
2x 25mm Mk38 Cannon
16x RIM-162 ESSM surface-to-air missiles
8x Naval Strike Missile surface-to-surface missiles
2x Double 324 mm ILAS-3 mod 2 tubes (4 torpedoes)

Aircraft carried:
1x Eurocopter AS365
2x Schiebel Camcopter S-100
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