SIMA Peru and Korea’s STX carried out the christening and launching ceremony for two new patrol boats: B.A.P. “Río Huarmey” and B.A.P. “Río Nepeña”. Both units are part of the Investment Project called ‘Recovery of the capacity to perform surface coast guard operations in the national maritime domain and search and rescue operations’.
The ceremony were presided over by the President, Dina Boluarte Zegarra, and were attended by the Minister of Defense, Walter Astudillo Chávez; Commander General of the Navy, Admiral Luis José Polar Figari; Chief of the General Staff of the Navy and Chairman of the Board of SIMA PERU, Vice Admiral César Ernesto Colunge Pinto; the General Manager of SIMA PERU, Rear Admiral Luis Silva Lopez, representatives of HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, among other naval and civilian authorities.
The contract between all the entities for both units was signed in June 2023 to complete a batch of 6 patrol boats that were delivered since 2013. SIMA shipyard – main shipbuilder for Peruvian government ships – was in charge of the construction while STX took care of all the design and provided transfer of technology for key parts to the latter.
This joint work is performed in a larger frame of relations between Peru and South Korea meant to upgrade technical skills of Peruvian shipyard and upgrade capabilities of Peruvian Navy and Coast Guard. For the record, last year HD Hyundai Heavy Industries (“HHI”) signed a contract for the local construction of four naval vessels: one frigate, one OPV and two LCUs that will be manufactured locally and delivered by 2029. A few months later, HD HII and SIMA signed a MoU for a joint submarine development also to be built locally.
The new patrol boats are 56.4m in length, 8.5 meters in width and have a maximum speed of 23 knots with a displacement of 500 tons. These boats will be powered by 2x Caterpillar 3516C HD diesel engines which produce roughly 3,400 shp of thrust in total.
The vessels are equipped with one 30mm Typhoon RCWS (Remote Controlled Weapon Stations) and two sets of 12.7mm MiniTyphoon machine guns. It is also fitted with one Toplite EOS (Electro-Optical, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) system. The new vessels will play a key role protecting Peru’s coast, cracking down on illegal fishing and drug smuggling, and preventing maritime terrorism.
