Name João Coutinho In commission 1970-2015 Active 0 | Built 1968-1971 Completed 6 | |
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Builders Bazan, Ferrol (Spain) & Blohm & Voss, Hamburg (Germany) | ||
The João Coutinho-class corvettes were a series of corvettes built for the Portuguese Navy for service in Portugal's African colonies. The corvettes were designed in Portugal by naval engineer Rogério de Oliveira, but the urgent need of their services in the Portuguese Colonial War meant that the construction of the ships was assigned to foreign shipyards. Six ships were built; the first three ships were built by Blohm + Voss and the remaining three by Empresa Nacional Bazán. The ships were launched in 1970 and 1971.
From 1970 until the end of the conflict in 1975, the corvettes were used for patrol and fire-support missions in Angola, Mozambique, Guinea and Cape Verde. After the African colonies gained their independence, the corvettes were assigned to patrol duties in Portuguese territorial waters.
The João Coutinho class served as the basis for several other designs: Baptista de Andrade-class corvettes (Portugal), Descubierta-class corvettes (Spain, Egypt and Morocco), Espora-class (MEKO 140) corvettes (Argentina) and D'Estienne d'Orves-class (A-69) avisos (France, Argentina and Turkey) .
The ships were finally decommissioned in 2015. NRP General Pereira D'Eça was sunk off Madeira as an artificial reef on 13 July 2016.