The ''Esmeraldas''-class corvettes are a class of

corvette A corvette is a small warship. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper (or " rated") warship. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the slo ...

in service with the

Ecuadorian Navy The Ecuadorian Navy ( es, Armada del Ecuador) is an Ecuadorian entity responsible for the surveillance and protection of national maritime territory and has a personnel of 9,127 men to protect a coastline of 2,237 km which reaches far into t ...

, built in Italy by Fincantieri, entering service in the early 1980s. The vessels were built on the Type 550 corvette design, similar to the and s, built primarily for export.

Construction and design

Six corvettes were ordered by the

from the Italian shipbuilder Cantieri Navali Riuniti (CNR) (now part of Fincantieri) in 1978 or 1979. They were a developed version of CNR's ''Wadi Mragh'' missile corvettes built for Libya in the late 1970s, with more powerful engines giving a higher speed and revised armament and equipment. The ships are

long overall __NOTOC__ Length overall (LOA, o/a, o.a. or oa) is the maximum length of a vessel's hull measured parallel to the waterline. This length is important while docking the ship. It is the most commonly used way of expressing the size of a ship, and ...

and between perpendiculars, with a

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...

of and a Draft of .

Displacement Displacement may refer to: Physical sciences Mathematics and Physics *Displacement (geometry), is the difference between the final and initial position of a point trajectory (for instance, the center of mass of a moving object). The actual path ...

is full load. Four MTU MA20 V 956 TB 92 diesel engines rated at a total of maximum power and sustained power drive four propeller shafts, giving a short-term maximum speed of and a sustained speed of . The ships have a range of at , at and at . The ships have a crew of 51. The ships can carry six Exocet MM40 anti-ship missiles in two triple mounts amidships, with a range of , while a quadruple launcher for the Albatros

surface to air missile A surface-to-air missile (SAM), also known as a ground-to-air missile (GTAM) or surface-to-air guided weapon (SAGW), is a missile designed to be launched from the ground to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of anti-aircraft syst ...

system, firing the Aspide missile with a range of is mounted at the aft end of the ship's superstructure, behind the mast. (No reload missiles are carried). An OTO Melara 76 mm Compact gun is fitted forward and a twin

Bofors 40 mm Bofors 40 mm gun is a name or designation given to two models of 40 mm calibre anti-aircraft guns designed and developed by the Swedish company Bofors: *Bofors 40 mm L/60 gun - developed in the 1930s, widely used in World War II and into the 1990s ...

anti-aircraft mount is fitted aft. Two triple 324 mm torpedo tubes are fitted, capable of launching Italian Whitehead

A244 The A244-s is an Italian lightweight, fire-and-forget torpedo employed for anti-submarine warfare. It can be launched from surface vessels or from aircraft, and locates the target by means of an acoustic seeker. Description The torpedo use ...

anti-submarine torpedoes. A helipad is positioned between the Exocet launchers and the Bofors mounts, allowing a

Bell 206 The Bell 206 is a family of two-bladed, single- and twin-engined helicopters, manufactured by Bell Helicopter at its Mirabel, Quebec, plant. Originally developed as the Bell YOH-4 for the United States Army's Light Observation Helicopter progra ...

helicopter to be operated, although no hangar is provided for the helicopter. Sensors include a Selenia RAN-10S air/surface search radar, two Selenia Orion 10X fire control radars and a Thomson Sintra Diodon hull-mounted sonar.

Ships in the class

Service history

''El Oro'' was badly damaged by a fire on 14 April 1985, and took two years to repair. Two of the ships had their torpedo tubes removed for transfer to the two s purchased from the British Royal Navy in 1991 ( BAE ''Presidente Eloy Alfaro'' and BAE ''Morán Valverde''). It was planned to upgrade the ships' combat and fire control systems in 1993–1994, but a lack of funds prevented these changes. Three of the vessels of the class (''Los Rios'', ''Manabí'' and ''Loja'') were refitted to extend their life by Astinave, being re-delivered in 2017–2018. Changes included fitting a locally developed combat management system called Orion.

Citations

References

* * * * {{List of ships built by Fincantieri Corvette classes Corvettes of the Ecuadorian Navy Ships built by Fincantieri Ships built in Italy Ships of the Ecuadorian Navy