Port Belgrano Naval Base ( - BNPB) is the largest
naval base
A naval base, navy base, or military port is a military base, where warships and naval ships are docked when they have no mission at sea or need to restock. Ships may also undergo repairs. Some naval bases are temporary homes to aircraft that usu ...
of the
Argentine Navy
The Argentine Navy (ARA; ). This forms the basis for the navy's ship prefix "ARA". is the navy of Argentina. It is one of the three branches of the Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic, together with the Argentine Army, Army and the Argentine ...
, situated next to
Punta Alta, near
Bahía Blanca
Bahía Blanca (; English: ''White Bay''), colloquially referred to by its own local inhabitants as simply Bahía, is a city in the Buenos Aires Province, Buenos Aires province of Argentina, centered on the northwestern end of the eponymous Blanc ...
, about south of
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...
. It is named after the
brigantine
A brigantine is a two-masted sailing vessel with a fully square-rigged foremast and at least two sails on the main mast: a square topsail and a gaff sail mainsail (behind the mast). The main mast is the second and taller of the two masts.
Ol ...
''General Belgrano'' (named after
Manuel Belgrano
Manuel José Joaquín del Corazón de Jesús Belgrano (3 June 1770 – 20 June 1820), usually referred to as Manuel Belgrano (), was an Argentina, Argentine public servant, economist, lawyer, politician, journalist, and military leader. He to ...
) which sounded the area in late 1824.

Home of the Argentine Seas Fleet ( ''Flota de Mar''), it concentrates the major ships and arsenals; and is close to the main bases of other Argentine Navy organisations:
Marine's camp ''Baterías'' and
Naval aviation
Naval aviation / Aeronaval is the application of Military aviation, military air power by Navy, navies, whether from warships that embark aircraft, or land bases.
It often involves ''navalised aircraft'', specifically designed for naval use.
Seab ...
's
air base ''Comandante Espora'' ( - BACE) .
History
Designed by Italian engineer
Luis Luiggi, Puerto Belgrano opened on November 30, 1896, under the name Puerto Militar (). In 1911, the French-owned railway company
Ferrocarril Rosario y Puerto Belgrano opened a broad gauge () line between Puerto Belgrano and
Rosario
Rosario () is the largest city in the central provinces of Argentina, Argentine province of Santa Fe Province, Santa Fe. The city, located northwest of Buenos Aires on the west bank of the Paraná River, is the third-most populous city in the ...
. The harbor was renamed Puerto Belgrano in 1923.

The base grew in importance with the size of the fleet. During
World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
and
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
the s and were docked here, and during the
Cold War
The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...
the aircraft carriers and were docked at this base.
The shipyard continues doing maintenance and refits of vessels and
submarines
A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or info ...
.
In April 2006, the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
's Antarctic patrol vessel entered Puerto Belgrano for repairs after damaging its rudder while in
Antarctica
Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...
in February. It was the first time since the end of the 1982
Falklands War
The Falklands War () was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British Overseas Territories, British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and Falkland Islands Dependenci ...
() that a British Royal Navy ship had entered the Argentine naval base.
Facilities
The base contains a naval hospital, specialized workshops, six middle and tertiary level military schools, a banking headquarters and seven residential neighborhoods for naval personnel, public schools, a printing press, the newsroom of the magazine "Gaceta Marinera", a bank headquarters, the "Stella Maris" Catholic parish, a civil registry, post office, a museum, seven residential neighborhoods for naval personnel, a hotel, among other facilities. All of them surround the quays and drywalls that were proposed by the ship's captain
Félix Dufourq, who carried out many of the studies aimed at finding the most suitable place for the construction of the naval facilities.
Based ships
Source:
Destroyers
*
ARA ''Almirante Brown'' (D-10)
*
ARA ''La Argentina'' (D-11)
*
ARA ''Sarandí'' (D-13)
Corvettes

*
ARA ''Espora'' (P-41)
*
ARA ''Rosales'' (P-42)
*
ARA ''Spiro'' (P-43)
*
ARA ''Parker'' (P-44)
*
ARA ''Robinson'' (P-45)
*
ARA ''Gómez Roca'' (P-46)
Auxiliaries and Amphibious
*
ARA ''Patagonia'' (B-1)
*
ARA ''Canal Beagle'' (B-3)
*
ARA ''Bahía San Blas'' (B-4)
* ARA ''Puerto Argentino'' (A-21)
* ARA ''Estrecho de San Carlos'' (A-22)
* ARA ''Islas Malvinas'' (A-24)
*
ARA ''Teniente Olivieri'' (A-2)
*
ARA ''Punta Alta'' (Q-63)
Antarctic Naval Command
*
ARA ''Almirante Irízar''
Tugships
* ARA Querandí (R-2)
* ARA Tehuelche (R-3)
* ARA Mataco (R-4)
* ARA Mocoví (R-5)
* ARA Zeus (R-9)
Centro Espacial Manuel Belgrano (CEMB)
A launch pad is planned Argentine space launch vehicle "
Tronador II", named Centro Espacial Manuel Belgrano (CEMB) at . Land for the construction of the facilities were ceded to
CONAE
The National Space Activities Commission (Spanish language , Spanish: ''Comisión Nacional de Actividades Espaciales'', CONAE) is the civilian agency of the government of Argentina in charge of the national space programme.
History Sociedad ...
(Argentine Space Agency). The location was selected because of existing Navy facilities, security measures already in place, large enough available area, and a favorable location for launches into polar orbits.
See also
*
List of shipyards of Argentina
*
Mar del Plata Naval Base
*
Ushuaia Naval Base
*
Falklands Naval Station
References
Citations
Sources
*
Puerto Belgrano historyat Histarmar
HMS Endurance completes repairs in Puerto Belgrano
External links
{{Authority control
Shipyards of Argentina
Argentine Navy bases
Buildings and structures in Buenos Aires Province
Belgrano
Rocket launch sites in Argentina
1896 establishments in Argentina