ARA ''Spiro'' (P-43) is the third ship of the

MEKO 140A16 The MEKO 140 is a frigate/ corvette design by the German Blohm + Voss shipyard as part of the MEKO family of vessels. The MEKO 140 is a development of the Portuguese Navy's s designed by the Portuguese naval engineer Rogério de Oliveira in the ...

of six corvettes built for the Argentine Navy. The ship is the second ship to bear the name of the Greek-born Captain

Samuel Spiro Miguel Samuel Spiro was a naval commander of the Argentine Navy born in Hydra Island, Greece. He emigrated to Buenos Aires with his two brothers in 1810, and was an early supporter of the May Revolution. He had been a Navy Captain in Greece, a ...

, who fought during the Argentine War of Independence and blew himself up with his ship rather than surrender to the Spanish forces following the battle of Arroyo de la China, in 1814. She is homeported at

Puerto Belgrano Port Belgrano Naval Base ( es, Base Naval Puerto Belgrano - BNPB) is the largest naval base of the Argentine Navy, situated next to Punta Alta, near Bahía Blanca, about south of Buenos Aires. It is named after the brigantine ''General Be ...

Naval Base and is part of the Navy's 2nd Corvette Division with her five sister ships.

Construction

''Spiro'' and her sister ships were part of the 1974 Naval Constructions National Plan, an initiative by the Argentine Navy to replace old

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

-vintage ships with more advanced warships. The original plan called for six MEKO 360H2 destroyers, four of them to be built in Argentina, but the plan was later modified to include four MEKO destroyers and six corvettes for anti-surface warfare and patrol operations. ''Spiro'' was constructed at the

Río Santiago Shipyard The Rio Santiago Shipyard is a shipyard located in the city of Ensenada, Buenos Aires Province at the shores of the Santiago River. Currently owned by the Government of Buenos Aires Province, it has been one of the major active and important shi ...

of the Astilleros y Fábricas Navales del Estado (State Shipyards and Naval Factories) state corporation. Her

keel The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element on a vessel. On some sailboats, it may have a hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose, as well. As the laying down of the keel is the initial step in the construction of a ship, in Br ...

was laid down on 2 October 1982, and was launched on 24 June 1983. The ship was officially delivered to the Navy on 26 November 1987, and formally commissioned on 9 May 1988.

Service history

On 25 September 1990, ''Spiro'' and the destroyer participated as part of a multinational task force in the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

-mandated blockade of

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

following its invasion of

Kuwait Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to the nort ...

. She participated in patrol and escort missions as part of Operations Desert Shield and

Desert Storm The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...

, returning to Argentina on 30 May 1991. ''Spiro'' also participated in several

naval exercise A military exercise or war game is the employment of military resources in training for military operations, either exploring the effects of warfare or testing strategies without actual combat. This also serves the purpose of ensuring the com ...

s and conducted fishery patrol duties in the Argentine exclusive economic zone, capturing three illegal fishing ships between 1991 and 1994. In August 2012 she ran aground on a sandbank as she left Mar del Plata and lost her

sonar Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigate, measure distances (ranging), communicate with or detect objects on o ...

. This meant that her sister had to make an unscheduled deployment to replace ''Spiro'' on the Atlasur IX exercise off

West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, M ...

. Having left port with unresolved problems in her generators, ''Espora'' ended up spending 73 days in South Africa after three generators failed completely and Argentina struggled to find the money to repair them. In 2021, ''Spiro'' was reported active and, in September, participated in a sea exercise also involving her sister ships ''Espora'', ''Robinson'' and ''Gómez Roca'', along with the destroyer ''Sarandí''.

References

Bibliography

* ''Guia de los buques de la Armada Argentina 2005-2006''. Ignacio Amendolara Bourdette, , Editor n/a. (Spanish/English text) {{DEFAULTSORT:Spiro (P-43) Espora-class corvettes Ships built in Argentina 1982 ships Gulf War ships of Argentina Corvettes of Argentina Maritime incidents in 2012