TSAMTO, December 2. The Australian Navy has completed the procedure for transferring two Adelaide-class air defense frigates to the Chilean Navy, FFG-11 Captain Prat (formerly named FFG-06 Newcastle) and FFG-14 Almirante Latorre (formerly FFG-05 Melbourne) under the contract from 2019.
As reported by Infodefensa.com, the program was implemented as part of the Puente IV project, according to which ships from the Australian Navy will replace the former Dutch L-class frigates that have served their service life in the Chilean Navy.
The implementation of the Puente IV project will allow the Chilean Navy to keep 8 surface ships in combat, which will ensure the security of territorial waters and the protection of national interests. The frigates acquired from the Australian Navy will replace the 3,750-ton L-class air defense frigates (Jacob van Heemskerk class) removed from service with the Chilean Navy.
The Ministry of Defense of Chile has approved the implementation of a program to assess the possibility of replacing obsolete frigates in 2018. The possibility of buying both new frigates, the construction of which was supposed to be carried out at the national shipyard Astilleros y Maestranzas de la Armada (ASMAR), and former frigates in service was considered.
The disadvantage of the ship construction program at the national enterprise using foreign aid was called the high cost and long duration of the project.
The acquisition of frigates from the presence of one of the countries was recognized as a more affordable alternative. At the same time, the Navy evaluated the ships that will be decommissioned in the short term. In particular, the Type-23 frigates of the British Navy, the M-class frigates of the Netherlands Navy, the Halifax-class frigates of the Canadian Navy and the Adelaide-class frigates of the Australian Navy were considered.
As a result, by mid-2019, the purchase of two Adelaide-class frigates was considered the most acceptable, which, after an inspection carried out by Chilean specialists, were found suitable for further operation. The service life of the ships is about 26 years. They are armed with SM-2 MR Block IIIA missiles, which will provide air defense for ships of the Chilean Navy after the decommissioning of L-class frigates.
The FFG-06 Newcastle frigate was decommissioned on June 30, 2019, and FFG-05 Melbourne on October 26, 2019. During the past decade, the ships have been modernized. The key points of modernization were the replacement of the fire control system with the Australian development of ADACS, the installation of an eight-container vertical launcher Mk.41 with RIM-162 EESM missiles, a new target search radar, GAS Spherion, towed GAS TMS 4350 and the replacement of the SM-1 missiles with SM-2 MR Block IIIA missiles.
The command of the Chilean Navy has allocated about $ 3.6 million for 30 training courses, the relocation of crews, technical inspection and transfer of ships.
