RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Beyond the media reports and protocol exchanges, the Uruguayan National Navy would not have the minimum conditions or real interest in receiving the two deprogrammed ships (after serious design and material problems) of the Freedom Class -the homonymous and the “Fort Worth”- of the U.S. Navy due to the initial technological defects of this ambitious program and the serious problems and shortcomings of the Uruguayan Navy itself in terms of maintenance, beyond the prohibitive costs of its operation in a navally very impoverished country.
Larger than the latest Joao Belo-class frigates incorporated by the Portuguese Navy (115 meters long and 3,500 tons in this case), in addition to serious electrical and engine problems, the propulsion of the Freedom (diesel and gas), which has revealed serious operational difficulties and some cases of ships returning to their bases under tow, and water jet propulsion -impossible to maintain locally and without moderately trained personnel in this regard, in addition to large consumers of oil- make it unfeasible to even evaluate any probability of negotiating them locally.
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PROBLEMS FROM THE START
Added to this are its automation devices, from various systems, including the Total Ship Computing Environment, which have caused many difficulties for the U.S. Navy, all of which has made both ships go through numerous repairs, estimating that in order to correct all the inconveniences registered in both, it could be necessary to invest some US$900 million, an unattainable figure in Uruguay.
This is not counting the hull problems, assembled in special steel with an aluminum superstructure, which gives rise to a kind of almost uncontrollable corrosion that was corrected in later ships of the series, although not in the first ones, which are the ones offered. To this is added a high consumption, which in the Uruguayan National Navy -sometimes with the majority of its scarce active fleet prevented from sailing due to lack of fuel- is an absolute priority, so that beyond diplomacy it is completely impossible even to think about incorporating these two controversial Freedom Class ships.
Meanwhile, the controversial issue of the purchase of OPVs for the Uruguayan Navy seems to remain undefined, since while serious doubts arise about the suitability of the Advisory Commission to repeatedly rule in favor of the Chinese proposal -what was the desire of the majority of the national political leadership- the Defense Cooperation Agreement with this country, already approved behind closed doors by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is frozen, as well as slowing down the possibility of a Sino-Uruguayan Free Trade Agreement, part of the ruling party is also beginning to be skeptical of the Asian naval option.
With information from Defensa