Shipbuilders near and far line up for Latin American naval upgrades

SANTIAGO, Chile — Latin American countries are seeing the beginnings of a resurgence in naval shipbuilding following a decades-long lull that has left industrial capacity there languishing.

European yards have taken notice of the market, as heavy hitters like Naval Group, Thales, Fincantieri, MBDA, Navantia, Damen Schelde, Saab, ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems, Kongsberg, BAE Systems, Indra and Babcock flocked to exhibit at ExpoNaval, the region’s main maritime show, held in Chile in December.

Pairing proven designs from across the Atlantic with national requirements in Latin America is already beginning to boost local naval industries.

The trend was highlighted by Colombia, which in November awarded a contract to state-owned naval shipbuilder COTECMAR for a series of five frigates for the country’s Navy. The vessels will replace Colombia’s current squadron of four light frigates. The cost of the first new frigate will be $440 million, with the total fleet cost expected to reach $2 billion.

Colombia’s state-owned shipbuilder COTECMAR is building frigates for the country’s Navy. (COTECMAR)

The Netherland’s Damen Schelde yard will be the main subcontractor, providing a tailored version of its Sigma 10514 frigate design as well as technical support to the Colombian shipbuilder.

Meanwhile, COTECMAR is also building a series of two missile patrol corvettes, using an improved and larger version of a design by German shipbuilder Fassmer.

To the north, Mexico’s state-owned shipbuilder Astilleros de Marina, or ASTIMAR, which runs five shipyards in the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of the country, has built its expertise constructing patrol vessels based on a Spanish design for the Mexican Navy.

The Mexican Navy frigate ARM Benito Juarez participates in the multinational exercise Rim of the Pacific in July 2022. (Petty Officer 3rd Class Taylor Bacon/U.S. Coast Guard)

After building the series of offshore patrol vessels of the Holzinger, Sierra, Durango and Oaxaca classes — each locally designed with increased size and advanced capacities — ASTIMAR started the construction of its first modern warship in 2017 using Damen’s Sigma 10514 design.

The result was the 2,900-ton frigate ARM Benito Juarez, completed in 2019 and declared operational in Mexico’s naval fleet in 2020. Known as the first ship in the Long-Range Oceanic Patrol effort, locally known as the POLA program, it is the first oceanic ship operated by the Mexican Navy since 2004.

The Benito Juarez is fitted with a comprehensive suite of sensors coupled with advanced anti-surface, anti-submarine and air defense systems. It includes Boeing’s RGM-84L Harpoon Block II anti-ship missiles and Raytheon Technologies’ RIM-162 Evolved Seasparrow Missile air defense missiles, both in Mk 141 vertical missile launchers, as well as a launcher of Raytheon’s RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile II point air defense system.

The vessel will serve as test ship, to be followed by a series of seven sister ships, with building to start from 2025 and to continue into the 2030s, using an improved design that could like increase in size and displacement.

The POLA program, which could cost $3 billion if all seven planned frigates are ordered, could become the largest surface naval combatant program launched in Latin America. The ships are required under Mexico’s plans to deploy a squadron of frigates on each coast of the country.

And in Brazil, after a protracted process, the construction of the first of four 3,400-ton Tamandaré-class frigates started in September, with steel planks cut at a ThyssenKrupp shipyard in the southern state of Santa Catarina.

A rendering of the Tamandaré-class frigate, which Águas Azuis Consortium is building for Brazil. (ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems)

Original plans were to use an enlarged and improved version of the Barroso-class missile corvette. But the idea was discarded in favor of foreign expertise, after finding that the local capacity to design and build surface ships — developed between the 1970s and 1990s with the construction of British-designed Niteroi-class frigates and the indigenous Inhauma/Barroso-class corvettes — had vanished after a long lapse when nothing was built.

A contract worth $2 billion for the first series of four frigates was awarded early in 2020 to Águas Azuis Consortium, a joint venture formed by Germany’s ThyssenKrupp and Brazilian defense company Embraer. The ships will be built using a version of ThyssenKrupp’s Meko A100 design tailored to Brazilian Navy requirements.

The keel of the first-of-class Tamandaré frigate will be laid in the first trimester of 2023, with deliveries to start in late 2024 and be completed in 2029.

Meanwhile, Chile deploys what is currently the most modern surface combat fleet in South America, with five upgraded frigates of Dutch and British origins, and two air defense frigates acquired secondhand from Australia in 2019. But while those ships will serve well into the 2030s, Chile’s naval service is not idle about the future.

The Chilean Navy’s ambitions are to replace its fleet of eight frigates with a series of new 5,000-ton combat vessels expected to be built locally by state-owned naval yard ASMAR beginning in 2030. The plan has robust political support, and ASMAR has experience from building a series of four 1,800-ton patrol vessels of the Piloto Pardo class between 2006 and 2017.

The shipbuilder is currently building a 10,000-ton icebreaker, to be completed by the middle of 2023, and it’s preparing to build a series of four 8,000-ton amphibious and multipurpose transport ships.

The Chilean Navy’s present interest is Babcock’s Arrowhead 140 frigate design, already ordered by the U.K. and Poland. But it is early days, and the competition for a contract is not expected to start before the 2026-2027 time frame.

Emilio Meneses, an independent analyst based in Santiago, Chile, expects other regional countries to also express their interest in naval technology.

“In the years to come, we will see other Latin American nations with maritime interests, specially at the Southern Cone, to follow the paths of Mexico, Brazil and Colombia as well as potential forerunner Chile,” Meneses told Defense News. “Peru, which has a very capable shipbuilding industry, is likely to build its next frigates using a foreign design. Ecuador and Uruguay most possibly will acquire secondhand vessels with enough service life remaining and space for upgrading, according to their financial resources.”

José Higuera is a Latin America correspondent for Defense News.

智利圣地亚哥——经过数十年的低迷期，拉丁美洲国家的海军造船业开始复苏，此前该地区的工业产能一直处于停滞状态。

欧洲造船业已经注意到这个市场，像法国海军集团、泰雷兹、芬坎蒂尼、MBDA、纳凡蒂亚、达门·斯海尔德、萨博、蒂森克虏伯海事系统、康士伯、英国航空航天系统公司、英德拉和巴布科克等重量级企业纷纷涌向智利，参加 12 月举行的该地区主要海事展 ExpoNaval。

将大西洋彼岸的成熟设计与拉丁美洲的国家需求相结合，已经开始促进当地海军工业的发展。

哥伦比亚的案例凸显了这一趋势。去年11月，哥伦比亚与国有海军造船企业COTECMAR签订合同，为该国海军建造五艘护卫舰。这些舰艇将取代哥伦比亚目前拥有的四艘轻型护卫舰。首艘新护卫舰的造价为4.4亿美元，预计整个舰队的总造价将达到20亿美元。

哥伦比亚国有造船企业COTECMAR正在为该国海军建造护卫舰。（COTECMAR）

荷兰达门斯海尔德造船厂将作为主要分包商，为哥伦比亚造船厂提供定制版的 Sigma 10514 护卫舰设计以及技术支持。

与此同时，COTECMAR 还在建造两艘导弹巡逻护卫舰，采用的是德国造船商 Fassmer 设计的改进型和更大版本。

在北部，墨西哥国有造船企业 Astilleros de Marina（简称 ASTIMAR）在该国的太平洋和大西洋沿岸经营着五个造船厂，该公司凭借为墨西哥海军建造基于西班牙设计的巡逻舰而积累了丰富的经验。

2022年7月，墨西哥海军护卫舰“贝尼托·华雷斯”号参加了环太平洋多国联合演习。（美国海岸警卫队三级士官泰勒·培根摄）

在建造了霍尔辛格级、塞拉级、杜兰戈级和瓦哈卡级等一系列近海巡逻舰（每艘舰艇均采用本地设计，尺寸更大，性能更先进）之后，ASTIMAR 于 2017 年开始建造其第一艘现代军舰，该舰采用达门 Sigma 10514 设计。

最终建成的是排水量为 2900 吨的护卫舰“贝尼托·华雷斯”号，该舰于 2019 年完工，并于 2020 年在墨西哥海军舰队中服役。作为远程远洋巡逻计划（当地称为 POLA 计划）的第一艘舰艇，它是墨西哥海军自 2004 年以来运营的第一艘远洋舰艇。

“贝尼托·华雷斯”号航母配备了一套全面的传感器，并搭载了先进的反水面、反潜和防空系统。其中包括波音公司的RGM-84L“鱼叉”Block II型反舰导弹和雷神技术公司的RIM-162“改进型海麻雀”防空导弹，两者均安装在Mk 141型垂直导弹发射器中；此外，该航母还配备了雷神公司的RIM-116“滚体导弹II”型近程防空导弹系统发射器。

该船将作为试验船，随后将建造七艘姊妹船，建造工作将于 2025 年开始，并持续到 2030 年代，采用改进的设计，尺寸和排水量可能会增加。

如果全部七艘计划中的护卫舰都订购完毕，POLA项目总耗资可能高达30亿美元，这将成为拉丁美洲规模最大的水面作战舰艇项目。根据墨西哥的计划，这些舰艇需要在该国每个海岸线部署一个护卫舰中队。

在巴西，经过漫长的过程，四艘 3400 吨级的塔曼达雷级护卫舰中的第一艘于 9 月开始建造，钢板在南部圣卡塔琳娜州的蒂森克虏伯造船厂切割。

这是由Águas Azuis财团为巴西建造的塔曼达雷级护卫舰的效果图。（蒂森克虏伯海事系统公司）

最初的计划是使用巴罗索级导弹护卫舰的放大改进版。但由于发现菲律宾在20世纪70年代至90年代建造英国设计的尼泰罗伊级护卫舰和国产伊纳乌玛/巴罗索级轻型护卫舰期间发展起来的设计和建造水面舰艇的能力，在长期停滞不前后已经消失殆尽，因此放弃了这一想法，转而寻求外国技术。

2020年初，一份价值20亿美元的合同授予了Águas Azuis财团，用于建造首批四艘护卫舰。该财团是由德国蒂森克虏伯公司和巴西航空工业公司（Embraer）组成的合资企业。这些舰艇将采用蒂森克虏伯公司Meko A100型护卫舰的设计，并根据巴西海军的需求进行定制。

首艘塔曼达雷级护卫舰将于 2023 年第一季度铺设龙骨，将于 2024 年底开始交付，并于 2029 年完成。

与此同时，智利拥有南美洲目前最现代化的水面作战舰队，包括五艘升级后的荷兰和英国制造的护卫舰，以及2019年从澳大利亚二手购入的两艘防空护卫舰。虽然这些舰艇可以服役到2030年代，但智利海军对未来并没有无所作为。

智利海军的目标是用一系列新型5000吨级作战舰艇取代其现有的8艘护卫舰，这些舰艇预计将从2030年开始由国有海军造船厂ASMAR在当地建造。该计划得到了强有力的政治支持，而ASMAR在2006年至2017年间建造了四艘1800吨级的“皮洛托·帕尔多”级巡逻舰，积累了丰富的经验。

该造船厂目前正在建造一艘 10,000 吨级的破冰船，预计将于 2023 年年中完工，并且正在准备建造一系列四艘 8,000 吨级的两栖多用途运输船。

智利海军目前对巴布科克公司的“箭头”140型护卫舰设计方案感兴趣，该方案已获得英国和波兰的订单。但现在还处于早期阶段，预计合同竞标要到2026-2027年才会启动。

常驻智利圣地亚哥的独立分析师埃米利奥·梅内塞斯预计，其他地区国家也会对海军技术表现出兴趣。

“未来几年，我们将看到其他拥有海洋利益的拉美国家，特别是南锥体国家，效仿墨西哥、巴西和哥伦比亚，以及潜在的先行者智利的做法，”梅内塞斯告诉《防务新闻》。“秘鲁拥有非常强大的造船业，很可能会采用外国设计建造其下一代护卫舰。厄瓜多尔和乌拉圭则很可能根据自身财力，购买仍有足够使用寿命且有升级空间的二手舰艇。”

何塞·伊格拉是《防务新闻》拉丁美洲记者。