Operator Argentine Navy Commissioned 22 June 1981 Status in active service Launched 28 June 1980 | Laid down 1 December 1978 Homeport Mar del Plata Construction started 1 December 1978 Length 80 m | |
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Namesake Guillermo Enrique Granville | ||
ARA Granville (P-33) is a Drummond class corvette of the Argentine Navy. She is named after Guillermo Enrique Granville, a hero of the Battle of Juncal against Brazil.
She is currently based at Mar del Plata and conducts fishery patrol duties in the Argentine Exclusive Economic Zone where she has captured several trawlers in recent years. According to reports in November 2012 the Drummond class “hardly sail because of lack of resources for operational expenses”.
Service history
The first two ships of the Drummond class were built in 1977 in France for the South African Navy. The sale was embargoed by United Nations Security Council Resolution 418 during sea trials and the ships were sold to Argentina instead. A third ship was ordered and entered service as ARA Granville on 22 June 1981, in time for the Falklands War (Spanish: Guerra de Malvinas) the following year. There are minor differences in equipment fit compared to her sisters, for instance the Granville has French Degaie decoys rather than the British Corvus chaff launchers.
On 28 March 1982 she sailed with her sister ARA Drummond and took up station northeast of Port Stanley to cover the main amphibious landings on 2 April. After the attack she operated north of the Falklands with her sister ships as Task Group 79.4, hoping to catch ships detached from the British taskforce. On 29 April the corvettes were trailed by HMS Splendid whilst she was looking for the Argentine carrier ARA 25 de Mayo, but they managed to outrun the British submarine.
Granville carried the P-3 pennant number until the introduction of the Espora class corvettes in 1985 when she became P-33. In 1994, Granville and her sisters participated in Operation Uphold Democracy, the United Nations blockade of Haiti. During this time, she was based at Roosevelt Roads Naval Station in Puerto Rico.
According to British reports, in 1995 Granville harassed a number of trawlers around the Falklands and confronted and illuminated with her radar the British forward repair ship RFA Diligence.