ARAGeneral Belgrano (C-4) was an Argentine Navy light cruiser in service from 1951 until 1982. Originally commissioned by the U.S. Navy as USS Phoenix, she saw action in the Pacific theatre of World War II before being sold to Argentina. The vessel was the second to have been named after the Argentine founding father Manuel Belgrano (1770–1820). The first vessel was a 7,069-ton armoured cruiser completed in 1896.
This article describes the composition and actions of the Argentine naval forces in the Falklands War. For a list of naval forces from the United Kingdom, see British naval forces in the Falklands War.
ARA Bahía Buen Suceso (B-6) was a Bahía Aguirre-class 5,000-ton fleet transport that served in the Argentine Navy from 1950 to 1982. She took part in the Falklands War as a logistics ship tasked with resupplying the Argentine garrisons scattered around the Falkland Islands. Captured by British forces on 15 June after running aground at Fox Bay, she sank in deep waters while being used as target practice by the Royal Navy on 21 October 1982.
USS Borie (DD-704), an Allen M. Sumner-class destroyer, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for Adolph E. Borie, Secretary of the Navy under President Ulysses S. Grant.
ARA Patagonia (B-1) is a multi-product replenishment oiler of the Durance class in service in the Argentine Navy. She was the lead ship of her class serving in the French Navy as Durance from 1977 to 1999. In French service, the ship served with the Force d'action navale. In Argentine service the vessel is used in multi-national naval exercises and supplies the Antarctic missions operating from Ushuaia. In 2017, Patagonia was used to search for the missing submarine ARA San Juan.
Port Belgrano Naval Base is the largest naval base of the Argentine Navy, situated next to Punta Alta, near Bahía Blanca, about 560 km (348 mi) south of Buenos Aires. It is named after the brigantine General Belgrano which sounded the area in late 1824.
USS Cahuilla (ATF-152) was an Abnaki class fleet tug in the service of the United States Navy during World War II. In 1961 she was sold to the Argentine Navy as ARA Irigoyen (A-1) where she served until 2009 when she became a Museum ship.
USS Luiseno (ATF-156) was an Abnaki-class fleet ocean tug built for the United States Navy during World War II. Named after the Luiseño peoples, she was the only U.S. Naval vessel to bear the name.
ARA General Belgrano was a Giuseppe Garibaldi-class armoured cruiser of the Argentine Navy. The ship was built in Italy, along with three sister ships also for Argentina. The vessel was the first to have been named after the Argentine founding father Manuel Belgrano (1770–1820). The ship was laid down in 1896 and served on the Argentine Navy until she was stricken on 8 May 1947.
HMS Caicos was a Colony-class frigate of the United Kingdom that served during World War II. She was originally ordered by the United States Navy as the Tacoma-class patrol frigate USS Hannam and was transferred to the Royal Navy prior to completion. It was named after the Caicos Islands.
ARA Suboficial Castillo (A-6) was an Abnaki-class tug/patrol boat of the Argentine Navy. She previously served in the United States Navy as USS Takelma (ATF-113) from 1944 to 1992. The ship was acquired by Argentina in 1993 and was in service until the 2020s. In 2022, the ship was put up for sale. Suboficial Castillo was used as support ship for both the Argentine Submarine Force and during the summer campaigns in Antarctica in the Patrulla Antártica Naval Combinada with the Chilean Navy to guarantee safety to all touristic and scientific ships that are in transit within the Antarctic Peninsula.
The ARA Teniente Olivieri (A-2) is a ship in service with the Argentine Navy classified as an aviso.
ARA Alférez Sobral (A-9) is an 800-ton ocean-going tug that was in service with the Argentine Navy from 1972 until 2019, where she was classified as an aviso. She had previously served in the US Navy as the fleet tug USS Salish (ATA-187). In Argentine service an aviso is a small naval vessel used for a number of auxiliary tasks, including tugging, laying buoys, and replenishing other ships, lighthouses and naval bases.
ARA Azopardo is a World War II era Argentine Navy warship, originally classified as patrol boat and later as antisubmarine frigate. The vessel is named after Juan Bautista Azopardo, an Argentine naval officer that served in both the Argentine War of Independence and in the Cisplatine War. It is the third Argentine naval ship with this name.
ARA Azopardo was a steam transport of the Argentine Navy, built in the Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino and sold to Argentina in 1884. It was based, among others, in the port of Buenos Aires and later Ushuaia, and was decommissioned in 1922 after being sunk in an accident; it was refloated and sunk in 1924 as a target. The vessel was named after the Juan Bautista Azopardo, a Maltese privateer and officer of the Argentine Navy during the Independence and Cisplatine wars, and was the first Argentine naval ship with this name.
ARA Ingeniero Julio Krause (B-13) was an oil tanker ship in service with the Argentine Navy from 1993 to 2015, and with YPF from to 1981 to 1993. She was the first ship in the Argentine Navy to bear the name of Argentine engineer Julio Krause, who discovered oil in Comodoro Rivadavia in 1907.
ARA Punta Médanos (B-18) was an auxiliary ship of the Argentine Navy, a tanker built at the Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson shipyard, Wallsend, in 1950. While in naval service she made several commercial trips supplementing the YPF tanker fleet, and supported the high seas fleet; in this capacity Punta Médanos participated in the Falklands War in 1982. She was decommissioned in 1984 and sold for scrapping. The vessel was named after the coastal feature of Punta Médanos, Argentina, and was the first Argentine naval ship with this name.
The Mar del Plata Naval Base is a naval port facility of the Argentine Navy, situated in Mar del Plata in the province of Buenos Aires and home to the Argentine submarine fleet.
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