The start of the first 2024 campaign of the Itinerant Social Action Platforms (PIAS) in the northeastern Peruvian jungle poses an interesting scenario to learn how the Armed Forces of a country can participate in the development of its population.
This initiative led by the Peruvian Navy (MGP) had its origin in a project dating back to 2013, which gathers and perfects the long experience accumulated for at least three decades by the naval institution through its hospital ships deployed in border areas.
These river units, which depended on the General Command of Amazonian Operations (COMOPERAMA), traveled – and still travel – the numerous rivers of the Amazon basin to bring health care to villages located on the borders with Brazil and Colombia.
Today, this successful program has been strengthened and developed to a higher level, as we will see below, with the PIAS, which are larger and more modern vessels manufactured by the Industrial Service of the Navy (SIMA Peru) in its shipyards in the city of Iquitos (SIMAI).
The current 2024 campaign is led by the General Commander of Amazonian Operations, Vice Admiral Gian Marco Chiapperini Faverio, based on actions to be carried out by the Navy within the framework of the Social Action with Sustainability Strategy of the Peruvian government.
Industrial and local development
As a generator of qualified employment, each PIA means some 21,400 man-hours in its construction, processes 217 tons of steel and generates the participation -in goods and services- of more than 20 companies in the Amazon region related to the naval industry.
The PIAS continue to figure in the Navy’s modernization plans, already underway, with the construction of two more at SIMAI, the largest shipyard in the Peruvian Amazon with an area of 127,000 m2, a floating dock of 52,80 meters, two dry docks 180 meters long, 16 meters wide and a capacity of 1,500 tons each.
This production center has a lot of experience and high specialization in naval fabrications, from its workshops came out innumerable patrol and logistic support vessels, and the two river gunboats BAP “Clavero” and BAP “Castilla”, each of 340 tons displacement, equipped with Escribano Mechanical & Engineering’s optronic weapons systems.
PIAS in action
As part of the Public Investment project called “Expansion and Improvement of Public Services and Social Programs”, five PIAS were initially built, equipped to provide medical and ophthalmological consultation, vaccination -with cold chain-, delivery room and newborn care, telemedicine, minor surgery, laboratory and pharmacy, among others.
In addition, they were provided with government services, including identity registration, payment of teachers’ salaries and retirees’ pensions, automatic banking, talks and guidance in education, culture and protection of vulnerable populations, among others.
Today the fleet is composed of twelve units, each of 42 meters in length, 250 tons displacement, 42 meters in length, 8 meters in beam and a crew of 21 sailors.
Two PIAS to operate in the upper and lower basins of the Putumayo River, two on the Napo River, two on the Ucayali, one on the Yavari, one on the Marañon River, one on the Tigre River, one on the Morona, one for reserve or maintenance in Iquitos, and the last one on Lake Titicaca – the highest lake in the world, where it also serves Bolivian citizens.
To this component will be added the recently delivered “Río Ucayali I” and “Río Ucayali II”, both of the larger “Río Yavarí” class – 48 meters long, 10 meters beam and 0.82 meters draft -, operated by 43 crew members, which will travel the Ucayali River together with the veteran Topical Vessel BAP Curaray and Topical-Hospital Vessel BAP Raumis.
With this, the Peruvian Navy reaffirms its commitment to provide different services and social programs of the State, contributing to the development of the most vulnerable communities, in this case, of the Ucayali and Loreto regions.
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