ARA Drummond (P-31)

ARA Drummond
History
South Africa
Class and type:	D'Estienne d'Orves class Aviso
Namesake:	Cape of Good Hope
Ordered:	February 1976
Builder:	Lorient, France
Laid down:	12 March 1976
Launched:	5 March 1977
Christened:	SAS Good Hope
Out of service:	17 November 1977
Fate:	Delivery blocked by UNSCR 418 during sea trials in France
Argentina
Namesake:	Francisco Drummond
Operator:	Argentine Navy
Ordered:	1978
Commissioned:	9 November 1978
In service:	9 November 1978
Renamed:	ARA Drummond
Homeport:	Mar del Plata
Fate:	active service as of 2010
General characteristics
Class & type:	Type A69 Drummond class corvette
Displacement:	1,170 tons (1,320 tons full load)
Length:	80 m (260 ft)
Beam:	10.3 m (34 ft)
Draught:	3.55 m (11.6 ft)
Installed power:	12,000 shp (8.9 MW)
Propulsion:	2 × SEMT Pielstick 12 PC 2.2 V400 diesels, 2 × CP propellers
Speed:	23.3 knots (43 km/h)
Range:	4,500 nautical miles (8,330 km) at 16 knots (30 km/h)
Endurance:	15 days
Complement:	5 officers, 79 enlisted, 95 berths
Sensors and processing systems:	Thales DRBV 51A air/surface search Thales DRBC-32E fire control Consilium Selesmar NavBat Thales Diodon hull MF sonar
Electronic warfare & decoys:	Thales DR 2000 S3 Thales Alligator 51 jammer 2 × 18 Corvus decoys
Armament:	4 × MM38 Exocet anti-ship missiles 1 × 100 mm/55 Mod.1968 dual purpose gun 1 × twin Bofors 40 mm L/70 AA guns 2 × 20 mm Oerlikon AA guns 2 × .50cal Colt M2 machine guns 2 × triple 324 mm ILAS-3 tubes (WASS A-244S torpedoes)
Aircraft carried:	none
Aviation facilities:	small pad for VERTREP

ARA Drummond (P-31) is the lead ship of the Drummond class of three corvettes of the Argentine Navy. She is the second vessel to be named after Navy Sgt Francisco Drummond.

She is currently based at Mar del Plata and conducts fishery patrol duties in the Argentine Exclusive Economic Zone, where she has captured several trawlers in recent years. According to reports in November 2012 the Drummond class "hardly sail because of lack of resources for operational expenses".

Service history

Drummond was built in 1977 in France for the South African Navy to be named SAS Good Hope but was embargoed at the last minute by United Nations Security Council Resolution 418 over apartheid. It was sold to Argentina instead and delivered on 9 November 1978.

She carried the pennant number P-1 until the introduction of the Espora class corvettes in 1985 when she became P-31.

In 1982 she served with her sister ships in the Falklands War (Spanish: Guerra de Malvinas).

On 7 October 1983, during a live fire exercise, sunk the old destroyer Almirante Domecq Garcia with a MM38 Exocet missile.

On 1994, from her temporary base at Roosevelt Roads Naval Station, she participated on the blockade of Haiti during Operation Uphold Democracy.

She had also served as support ship of the Buenos Aires-Rio de Janeiro tall ships races.

HMS York incident

On 25 February 2010 the British tabloid The Sun reported that the Drummond had been intercepted and shepherded away by the Royal Navy destroyer HMS York in the vicinity of the Falkland Islands. The story was published in the middle of a diplomatic dispute between the United Kingdom and Argentina about oil drilling, escalating the crisis as the "first head-to-head of the Falklands row". The British Ministry of Defence quickly issued a denial. A spokesman said the incident had occurred a month earlier, before the oil dispute began; both ships were in the same zone in international waters during rough weather at night, and, after a friendly dialogue by radio, each had continued on its own exercise.

References

Portions based on a translation from Spanish Wikipedia.

Further reading

• Guia de los buques de la Armada Argentina 2005-2006. Ignacio Amendolara Bourdette, ISBN 987-43-9400-5, Editor n/a. (Spanish/English text)

External links

• official site