Buenos Aires-class destroyer

The Buenos Aires-class destroyers were a group of destroyers built for the Argentine Navy in Britain in the 1930s.

ARA Buenos Aires
Class overview
Name	Buenos Aires class
Builders	Vickers Armstrong, John Brown, Cammell Laird, UK
Operators	Argentine Navy
Preceded by	Mendoza class
Succeeded by	Brown class
Built	1936–1938
In commission	1938–73
Completed	7
Lost	1
Retired	6
General characteristics
Type	Destroyer
Displacement	1,375 t (1,353 long tons) standard 2,042 t (2,010 long tons) full load
Length	98.45 m (323 ft 0 in)
Beam	10.38 m (34 ft 1 in)
Draught	3.2 m (10 ft 6 in)
Propulsion	2 shaft geared Parsons steam turbines, three Admiralty boilers, 25,000 kW (34,000 hp)
Speed	35 knots (65 km/h; 40 mph)
Range	4,100 nmi (7,600 km) at 14 kn (26 km/h; 16 mph)
Complement	130
Armament	4 × 4.7 in (120 mm) QF Mark IX guns (4 × 1) 8 × 0.50 in (12.7 mm) machine guns 8 × 533 mm (21 in) torpedo tubes (2 × 4)

Design

ARA Corrientes sinking after collision with cruiser Almirante Brown on 3 October 1941

The ships were based on the contemporary G-class destroyers building for the British Royal Navy, with some modifications to suit Argentine requirements.

After World War II these ships were modified by installing two single hand-worked 40 mm (1.6 in) Bofors guns between the funnels replacing the original anti-aircraft machine guns, and two twin air-cooled Bofors unique to the Argentine and Swedish navies (instead of the more common water-cooled mounts) replacing the after bank of torpedo tubes. Radar and sonar were also fitted at this time and Santa Cruz landed the "B" gun in favor of a pair of Hedgehog anti-submarine weapons. Anti-submarine weaponry was further improved with 4 throwers and 2 stern tracks.

Ships

Ship	Builder	Launched	Commissioned	Fate
ARA Buenos Aires (T6 / D6)	Vickers-Armstrong, Barrow	21 September 1937	4 April 1938	Scrapped 1971
ARA Corrientes (T8)		21 September 1937	1 July 1938	Sunk in collision with cruiser ARA Almirante Brown, 3 October 1941
ARA Entre Rios (T7 / D7)		21 September 1937	15 May 1938	Scrapped 1973
ARA Misiones (T11 / D11)	Cammell Laird, Birkenhead	23 September 1937	5 September 1938	Scrapped 1971
ARA San Juan (T9 / D9)	John Brown & Company, Clydebank	24 June 1937	23 March 1938	Scrapped 1973
ARA San Luis (T10 / D10)		23 August 1937	23 March 1938	Scrapped 1971
ARA Santa Cruz (T12 / D12)	Cammell Laird	3 November 1937	26 September 1938	Scrapped 1973

Operational history

ARA Corrientes collided with cruiser ARA Almirante Brown in the fog during naval exercises and sank on 3 October 1941, 54 nm northeast of Mar del Plata.^[1]

On 19 September 1955, San Luis, San Juan and Entre Rios supported the cruiser ARA Nueve de Julio when the latter shelled and destroyed fuel depots at the port of Mar del Plata, in the course of the Revolucion Libertadora. The destroyers' fire kept at bay a group of armed civilians and soldiers attempting to storm the local naval base. Some civilian property was damaged. The destroyer force also shelled the headquarters of the Army Antiaircraft School, north of the city, some hours later.^[2]

See also

• List of ships of the Argentine Navy
• Mendoza-class destroyer