Do335 , por que no colocaste esta noticia aca, como tan egoista :yonofui:
Nota de Jane's Navy International:
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OPVs and frigates set pace in Chile's naval expansion
The Chilean Navy is focusing its efforts on the modernisation and acquisition of assets, seeking to strengthen domestic borders while also contributing more in the international arena. Casandra Newell reports on recent developments.
On 15 October 2008 the Chilean government-owned ASMAR (Astilleros y Maestranzas de la Armada) shipyard facility in Talcahuano launched the second of up to four 1,850-ton offshore patrol vessels (OPVs) - known locally as patrulleros de zona maritima (PZM) - under the Chilean Navy's Danubio IV project.
Comandante Policarpo Toro is due to enter the navy's coastguard branch during the first quarter of 2009, joining first-of-class Piloto Pardo, which was commissioned in June 2008. Although they are based on a design by German company Fassmer, the two PZMs are evidence of Chile's intention to modernise its fleet through the independent, indigenous production of economically efficient vessels.
Chile's maritime strategy is divided into three vectors: defence, maritime and international. The defence vector focuses on guarding the country's territorial waters; maintaining deterrence; managing crisis; and confronting low- medium- and high-intensity conflicts. The maritime vector is concerned with patrolling the area of interest for pollution control; protection of life; supporting isolated regions; scientific marine research; and meteorological support. Finally the international vector deals with participation in multinational exercises and humanitarian support missions.
The government in Santiago has judged that protecting Chile's exclusive economic zone, which encompasses some four million square kilometres of Pacific Ocean and Antarctic territory, is essential for safeguarding the country's growing prosperity. In addition, Chile is responsible for providing a maritime search-and-rescue (SAR) capability over 26 million square kilometres of water. With these factors in mind, expansion of its patrol fleet has become a top priority for the navy.
New-build project
The contract for ASMAR to build the PZMs was signed in May 2005, with Northrop Grumman, Sisdef (a consortium of BAE Systems and the Chilean Navy) and Rohde & Schwarz participating as main subcontractors. Piloto Pardo was launched in June 2007 and delivered on 13 June 2008.
Measuring 80 m in length, each PZM has two Wärtsilä diesel engines in a combined diesel and electric propulsion arrangement, providing a maximum speed of 20 kt and a range of 8,600 n miles at 12 kt. Each ship is fitted with a 40 mm/70 medium-calibre naval gun and .50-calibre machine guns and will be capable of conducting autonomous SAR operations for up to 30 days. Stealth features reduce the ship's radar cross-section and the vessel can support a helicopter, such as the 332C Cougar and two 7 m rigid-hull inflatable boats.
Admiral Rodolfo Codina, Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean Navy, told Jane's on 14 October that the navy is interested in building two more PZMs although no definite plans are in place. The indigenous construction of the initial pair is a sign of Chile's growing economic strength and stability.
Second-hand sources
However, Chile's main source of fleet expansion remains, for the time being, the procurement of second-hand foreign vessels with an average remaining service life of 20 years.
The Proyecto Puente fleet recapitalisation programme is the Chilean Navy's most recent acquisition and modernisation undertaking; it has seen the country acquire and refit eight European frigates since 2003.
In April 2003 Chile signed the Proyecto Puente I agreement with the UK, worth USD45 million, for the purchase of the ex-Royal Navy (RN) Broadsword-class Type 22 frigate HMS Sheffield. Renamed Almirante Williams, the 4,800-ton ship was recommissioned under its new colours in September 2003. However, a start to modernisation efforts was delayed until March 2008.
The upgrade is expected to see the installation of a new CACS 1 combat data system; a Harpoon Block 2 surface-to-surface missile system; a Seawolf Block 2 surface-to-air missile system; and the installation of an ASSIST flight deck handling system to accommodate a Cougar helicopter.
Proyecto Puente II, signed with the Netherlands, involved the sale of four frigates to Chile at a total cost of USD400 million. It commenced in December 2005 with the transfer of ex-HrMs Jacob van Heemskerck, which became Almirante Latorre, and in July 2006 the former HrMs Witte De With became Capitán Prat.
The pair of 3,750-ton Latorre-class (or L-class) frigates were procured along with the NATO SeaSparrow weapon system; Harpoon Block 2 missiles from the United States; and Mk 46 torpedoes.
Also procured as part of Puente II were two 3,320-ton Karel Doorman-class (M-class) frigates, comprising the former HrMs Tjerk Hiddes and ex-HrMs Abraham van der Hulst, which have since been renamed respectively Almirante Riveros and Almirante Blanco Encalada. The latter transferred from the Netherlands in December 2005, with the former following in April 2007.
The third and final phase of Chile's frigate acquisition programme, Puente III, began in September 2005 with a contract signed with the UK Ministry of Defence for the purchase and pre-transfer sanitisation of three Duke-class Type 23 frigates, together with operator and maintainer training. The 4,200-ton ships were purchased for a total of USD350 million.
The ex-HMS Norfolk, ex-Marlborough and ex-Grafton became Almirante Cochrane, Almirante Condell and Almirante Lynch respectively. The latter is the newest of the eight frigates, having entered RN service in 1997.
Most of the pre-transfer overhaul work focused on the ships' combined diesel, electric and gas-turbine propulsion systems, although flight decks and hangars were expanded to operate the Cougar helicopter.
Almirante Lynch was the first Type 23 to transfer to Chile, in March 2007; Almirante Cochrane followed in December. Almirante Condell completed the Cochrane-class (as the trio are now known) acquisition in May 2008, recommissioning on 21 October at ASMAR's shipyard in Valparaiso.
Adm Codina says: "These newly acquired assets and their associated technology allow us to increase our interoperability with other developed navies acting under the same NATO standards, in spite of finding ourselves squarely in the spectrum of mid-sized navies."
Proyecto Puente has enabled Chile to relinquish its two ageing, former UK Leander-class frigates to Ecuador for USD10 million. Bearing the same names as their replacements, ex-Almirante Condell and ex-Almirante Lynch were both decommissioned in 2007 and are currently undergoing modernisation work at Talcahuano, before transferring to Ecuador.
South American primacy
Chile's naval construction and modernisation programmes since the late 1990s - including its four Scorpene and Thompson (Type 209/1300) submarines - have resulted in the country now possessing one of the most advanced navies in South America.
The two Scorpene-class attack boats were procured under a Project Neptune contract awarded in 1997 to DCN of France (now DCNS) and its Spanish partner Bazán (subsequently IZAR, now Navantia). O'Higgins was built by DCN in Cherbourg and Carrera at IZAR's Cartagena yard. Having entered the fleet in 2005 and 2006 respectively (replacing UK-built Oberon-class submarines), the Scorpenes are the first combatants acquired brand-new by the Chilean Navy in 20 years.
Chile is now considering the purchase of Exocet SM 39 Block 2 missiles for integration in its Scorpenes, each of which is already equipped with Black Shark heavyweight torpedoes (up to 18 per boat); a SUBTICS combat management system; hull-mounted active/passive search-and-attack sonar; and I-band navigation radar.
The older boats of the submarine force, the Howaldtswerke-built Type 209s - Thompson and Simpson - have undergone a series of modernisation efforts to extend their life to 2025. The navy had considered replacing the German boats - which were commissioned from new in 1984 - with two more Scorpenes; however, the Type 209s are now being upgraded instead, in an attempt to save money.
Type 209 modernisation began in 2005 with Simpson. The work included integration of a SUBTICS combat system and a new fire-control system; torpedo tube alterations to accept Black Shark and Exocet anti-ship missiles; and a new engine control system and battery set. Work is expected to be complete by the end of 2008. Thompson's modernisation schedule is 18 months behind its sister-ship.
There are challenges in operating the German boats, which have a maximum dived speed of 21.5 kt. Rear-Admiral Gustavo Jordan, the Chilean Navy's Chief of Operations, says: "We're still learning how to use them because of brand-new technology, brand-new capabilities. It's a tactical challenge.... [They're] so fast and agile. We have been successful but it's not been easy."
Surface expansion
Despite Chile's recent economic expansion, the navy is not seeking to procure more submarines. Adm Codina says he is content that his underwater flotilla is of sufficient size for its role in maritime operations.
However, advancing on the apparent success of previous modernisation programmes, the navy is moving forward with expansion efforts for its patrol forces. In addition to the indigenous production of its PZM vessels, Chile is investing in Foreign Military Sales via the US Coast Guard of 11 Defender-class fast response boats and 19 Arch Angel-class patrol boats, for delivery up to 2014.
Meanwhile, the navy's fleet of eight 39-ton Grumete Diaz-class (Dabur) coastal patrol craft is due to be retired by 2012. Transferred from Israel in two batches in 1991 and 1995, these craft underwent life extension refits in 2001-2.
In May 2008 the US Senate introduced a Naval Vessel Transfer Act in which Chile would be granted the Kaiser-class oiler Andrew J Higgins. The grant will enable Chile to replace its current replenishment ship, Araucano, which was commissioned in 1967. The ageing tanker's single-hull design no longer complies with international environmental safety standards, making it an increasingly unwelcome visitor in foreign ports of call.
According to Adm Codina, the Newport-class landing ship Valdivia, launched in 1970 for US service, will also require replacement in around five years' time. "We want to replace Valdivia with a multipurpose auxiliary ship, possibly from the US, Europe or South Korea, or from our own shipyards," he says.
The Chilean Navy has two classes of fast attack missile craft, comprising seven vessels: four German-built Riquelme-class (Tiger) craft operating in the Fourth Naval Zone out of Iquique; and three Israeli Casma-class (Saar 4) craft employed in the Beagle Channel (Third Naval Zone).
Both types have around 10 years of service life remaining, according to the admiral, during which time their Exocet MM 38 (Riquelme class) and Gabriel (Casma class) surface-to-surface missiles will be replaced.
Aviation assets
The navy is also expanding its aviation resources in an attempt to keep pace with the modernised surface and submarine fleets. A total of 11 fixed-wing aircraft will replace the three types in service: P-3A Orion, CASA 212 and P-111. Although Chile has expressed an interest in acquiring more Orion long-range SAR aircraft, a request to the US is unlikely due to budget constraints. Chile also considered the USN's S-3 Viking anti-submarine warfare (ASW) aircraft, although a formal request was never made.
Project Alcatraz is a USD150 million undertaking to gradually replace all of the Chilean Navy's fixed-wing assets with eight EADS CASA C-295 maritime patrol aircraft (MPA). The MPAs are due to enter service in two phases: the first three will be delivered in 2009 and there is an option to purchase the remaining five in phase two.
With a wingspan of 26 m and a maximum payload slightly in excess of 9,000 kg, the Spanish-built C-295s will perform maritime patrol, ASW, cargo and troop transport, and medical evacuation tasks. They promise a service life of 25-30 years and will not immediately replace the Orions.
As far as the rotary-wing fleet is concerned, the navy currently owns four AS365F Dauphin II short-range recovery helicopters and plans to purchase four more by the end of 2010, for USD24 million. Adm Codina states that six of the Dauphins will be embarked on coastguard ships while the remaining pair will be assigned to OPVs. The navy is considering the purchase of up to four additional aircraft.
Project Mantarraya is a design, development and production effort for unmanned aircraft, under which the navy is working closely with the US Office of Naval Research (ONR) on a number of concepts. Elmer Roman of the ONR's Santiago office says there are "several initiatives on the table from the Chilean Navy", one of them focusing on vertical take-off and landing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). "The entire concept of how [the UAV] is going to be packaged is still under development," he adds.
Roman continues: "We do have projects with the Chilean Navy and the university here, in which we are looking at developing remotely operated unmanned vehicles, or at least the concept behind those. We are thinking about how to use the technology for dual use - for example, for fast-deployable unmanned underwater vehicles launched from helicopters for remote diving search and rescue operations."
Although it is seeking to borrow the concepts and capabilities currently employed by the US and UK, the Chilean Navy's interest in UAVs is fuelled by their potential to execute multiple missions more cheaply.
The navy's rapid expansion has created several technological challenges that all parties, including the ONR, are striving to overcome. For example, the navy is addressing how to make all datalinks and communications systems within new vessels interoperable with one another, through a 'plug and play' capability.
However, the ONR lacks the research and development (R&D) agreements needed to work with Chile on projects such as advanced radar capabilities for the fleet, an important part of the effort to expand the reach of the navy's maritime domain awareness. The latter is an area in which the service is particularly proud of its technological achievements, such as the ability to capture AIS (automatic identification system) data generated by commercial ships.
The navy has also shown interest in acquiring the Long Range Identification Tracking System (LRITS) and the ONR believes it is a capability that can benefit all security organisations in the region by increasing maritime situational awareness. Efforts are focused on building C4ISR capabilities in both the South Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
Sisdef is developing open-architecture and datalink capabilities for the fleet. "In the area of maritime domain awareness they are developing a system called Graphic Model, which the Chilean Navy and their coastguard would use to keep track of ships in the region," says Roman. "It would enable them to pinpoint who is on the ships and what sort of cargo they are carrying."
Southern comforts
With a significant slice of Antarctica falling within Chile's maritime domain, a long-overdue replacement for the Robert D Conrad-class oceanographic research vessel Vidal Gormaz is a high priority for the marine scientific community. The 1,370-ton ship was commissioned into the US Navy (USN) in 1965 and transferred to Chile in 1992.
Adm Codina says: "With our status as an oceanic country, it is clear that scientific research linked to the sea in the areas of oceanography, fishing and hydrography plays an important role. Given this need, President of the Republic Michelle Bachelet ordered the construction [in August 2007] of a modern scientific platformin our ASMAR shipyards in Talcahuanoin order to replace Vidal Gormaz. The new ship, which will begin service in 2010,will continue supporting the national scientific endeavours."
Dubbed the Medusa Project, the procurement is a joint venture between the navy and the Undersecretary of Fisheries, with Norwegian shipbuilder Skipsteknisk AS contracted for its ST-367 research vessel design. Measuring 72 m in length and with a 16 m beam, it will be equipped to carry out gas-hydrate and oceanographic studies, among other research. ASMAR is expected to build the vessel at Talcahuano.
Another vessel nearing the end of its service life is the Type 1200 Antarctic patrol and survey icebreaker Contre-Almirante Oscar Viel Toro - a 6,320-ton Montreal-built ship that was commissioned into the Canadian Coast Guard in 1960 and acquired by Chile in 1995. It will require replacing in about five years' time, according to Adm Codina.
The navy has taken a leading role in research efforts to investigate climate change in Antarctica. Global concerns over climate change and natural resources have prompted a growing number of research programmes in the far south and Chile responded to demand by reopening its Antarctic base in 2008.
The UK submitted a proposal in October 2007 to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf to expand the boundaries of the British Antarctic Territory by one million square kilometres. The move led to talks with Argentina regarding co-operation to protect the countries' sovereign claims in the region.
William Melton, another Santiago-based ONR official, says: "There is a lot of uncertainty about what will happen with the Antarctic treaty in the near future. Some things that the UK expressed officially through the European Union raised anxiety in the region. Everyone's anticipating what happens when the treaty expires."
Although excavating the Antarctic is an expensive undertaking to which few countries can commit, concern over the planet's dwindling resources - particularly water, which Antarctica has in copious quantities - could lead to future tensions among nations claiming territory in the region.
Chile's stable relationship with Argentina has been strained by questions over sovereign boundaries in Antarctica, and the government in Buenos Aires has discussed stationing troops at Argentine reservoirs to safeguard its territory in the event of increased tensions. Chile imports the vast majority of its gas from Argentina but, with supplies decreasing, the former has ratcheted up efforts to find alternative forms of energy, putting further pressure on relations with its neighbour.
However, Chile has collaborated with regional and international partners to advance research in Antarctica, including the Valdivia Centre for Scientific Research and NASA on the SIRAHT-Ice project. The latter uses the Chilean Navy's P-3A and CASA 212 aircraft to document changes in Antarctic glaciers, demonstrating the service's ability to lead international scientific efforts.
Sharing know-how
The navy is also playing a key role in technology-sharing initiatives among South American nations. For example, it is collaborating with its counterparts in Argentina and Brazil on a new OPV programme. Argentina has an agreement to use the Danubio IV PZM design as the basis for five new OPVs of its own; the first steel has been cut and ship one is expected to be delivered in 2010.
Many such developments have been initiated by the ONR, which has organised several multinational conferences in the region. "One of the key conferences we had was a specialised Inter-American Naval Conference on science and technology," says Roman. "One of the proposals that some of the countries made at that conference was to leverage each others' research and development efforts to develop OPVs, and at least Chile and Argentina are following through."
Chile's technology-sharing efforts have extended beyond South America. In April 2008, US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Chilean Defence Minister José Goñi signed a Master of Information Exchange Agreement permitting the two nations to exchange data and technological information from military to military.
Adm Codina explains: "The United States is helping us to establish an optimal technical support for our weapons, command and control, and propulsion systems, all of which are present in our current fleet. This is complemented by instruction and training courses [for] our crews and other exchanges of a technical nature."
While the agreement permits the US and Chile to share information that will enable further advances in R&D, the Chilean Navy has taken several critical steps to become a leader in maritime affordability and maintainability, according to the ONR experts.
"They're developing a flexible navy in the sense that they are buying large capital vessels, but there are some other missions such as coastal surveillance and littoral types.... They realise that they cannot continue putting too much money into large platforms [and then use them] for littoral missions," state Roman and Melton.
"They are going to buy more of the cheaper, smaller vessels and less of the larger assets because they're probably going to use those large assets as deterrents in case of a conflict; but at the same time they're trying to figure out how to use those flexible, smaller vessels to provide broader capabilities beyond littoral theatres."
Roman and Melton continue: "Chile is considering if [it] can use those small platforms for ASW and other blue-water missions and that's where unmanned vehicles can make the smaller platforms more flexible."
The ONR forecasts that space-based systems will become an increasing focus of regional naval research. Brazil and Venezuela have already expressed interest in developing space-based capabilities and Chile has also discussed this with the US agency.
International focus
The navy's current strategy of acquisition and modernisation has had a particularly positive impact on the international vector of Chile's maritime policy. The modernised fleet has enabled more effective participation in multinational exercises and the fleet has likewise benefited from international support and co-operation.
Chilean warships are regular participants with their Argentine, French and US counterparts in the multinational 'Rim of the Pacific' exercise; the submarine O'Higgins and the frigate Almirante Riveros were involved in the June-July 2008 event.
The icebreaker Contre-Almirante Oscar Viel Toro has worked closely with the Argentine Navy on the Antarctic Combined Naval Patrol (Patrulla Antártica Naval Combinada/PANC).
Chile's neighbour to the north, Bolivia, has expressed interest in improving relations with its long-time adversary. During the last two years, the nations have discussed opening a maritime corridor to give Bolivia access to the Pacific and to the lucrative fishing grounds in northern waters. Bolivia has offered to supply natural gas to Chile in exchange for sea access.
Now the Chilean Navy is looking westwards to exploit opportunities and forge new partnerships on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. Indeed, Vice-Admiral Gustavo Jordan, the Chief of Naval Operations, regards the Pacific as the "ocean of the 21st century".
As Chile's economic prosperity increases in line with its naval power, the establishment of bilateral free trade agreements with countries such as China and South Korea could lead to stronger maritime relationships and regular naval interoperability exercises.
The Chilean Navy's commitment to fast-paced modernisation, growth and flexibility can only enhance its participation in such activities, while also contributing to the strengthening of Chile's borders.
Saludos :drool5:
