ARA Drummond (P-1 / P-31)

History

The Argentine Navy benefited from the apartheid embargo imposed on South Africa when the French Arsenal de Lorient group completed construction of two of the three frigates destined for South Africa. The ARA Drummond (P-31) was formed from what would become SAS Good Hope and entered service with the Argentine Navy in 1978.

French design based on D-Estienne d'Orves class standard.

The Corvette remains the smallest class of warships in service with the Navy today, playing an extremely critical role in nearshore patrols, while also maintaining good blue water capabilities. The definition of a warship type may vary from navy to navy, but the general role of that warship remains similar under different flags.

ARA Drummond was reassigned to the Argentine Navy on 9 November 1978 and was given a home port at Puerto Mar del Plata in eastern Argentina. On April 2, she served northeast of Port Stanley with ARA Granville to protect the amphibious assault there, and she became a veteran of the 1982 Falklands War against Britain. Drummond and her two sisters then formed Task Force 79.4 to hunt down and engage with the current British task force. On 29 April, the frigate overtook the British submarine HMS Splendid in the search for the aircraft carrier ARA Veinticinco de Mayo.

In addition to these relatively notable actions, the ARA Drummond survived the war unscathed despite a decisive British victory.

In 1983, a Flying Fish anti-ship missile was fired from her launcher to help sink the decommissioned Fletcher-class destroyer "Almirante Doemcq Garcia" off the coast of Mar del Plata. The submarine ARA San Luis also contributed a torpedo to this non-combat operation. In 1985, her flag was changed to "P-31" due to the arrival of the German-built Espola-class frigate battleships (a total of 6 have been preserved and operational since 1985).

In 1994, it was used (along with U.S. Navy and Polish assets) in the blockade of Haiti during Operation Preservation of Democracy. The operation led to the peaceful occupation of Haiti and the reinstatement of former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Like other ships in the Argentine Navy, the ARA Drummond sails very little today (2018) due to a lack of funds and resources to get the vessel underway and remain active in Argentine waters. The services also found it difficult to maintain their naval training programs, which only worsened the state of the navy as a whole.

Specification

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Performance

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Wing