SITREP: TAMANDARE Class Corvettes for Brazil

摘要

The baseline platform will come from the MEKO family of modular combat ships produced by Thryssenkrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) of Germany, a model exported around the world for almost 40 years.The resulting vessels, their sensors and armament, can be scaled up or down according to requirements, with examples including the HYDRA class operated by the Hellenic Navy and the ANZAC class, which forms the backbone of the Royal Australian and Royal New Zealand Navies. More modern MEKO designs have innovative features such as those used on the VALOUR class built for South Africa. One is a combined propulsion system using propellers and a pump jet to ensure high speed and low acoustic signature. These vessels also feature an 'X' shaped superstructure and mount their exhaust funnels at the stern in order to reduce radar signature. The TKMS led Aguas Azuis consortium was named as the winner of Brazil's competition in March 2019 from a shortlist of offerings which included Naval Group of France, offering its GOVVIND class corvette, Dutch Damen Group with its SIGMA corvette family, and a bid from Italy's Fincantieri based on the corvette design being supplied to Qatar (all of which had partnered with local industry). Up to 21 companies from around the world, including the UK and India, had made initial offerings. Despite delays over industrial relations and financing, President Jair Bolsonaro approved funding for the project in December 2019 and the contract was signed in March 2020.