The keel was laid for the first Macaé-class boat to have the capability to carry out mine countermeasures. Pictured here is NPa Macaé patrolling Rio de Janeiro's Bay of Guanabara in November 2024. (Victor Barreira)
The keel was laid on 28 November for the fifth Macaé-class coastal patrol ship for the Brazilian Navy, NPa Miramar (P74), at the state-owned shipyard, Arsenal de Marinha do Rio de Janeiro (AMRJ).
NPa Miramar will be the first Macaé-class boat to have the capability to carry out mine-countermeasures (MCM) operations, thanks to provisions to accommodate unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) and remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), the Director of the Navy Directorate-General for Material (DGMM), Fleet Admiral Edgar Luiz Siqueira Barbosa, told Janes.
The 54.20 m-long ship displacing 425 tonnes, which is part of the NPa500 project of the Patrol Ships Program (Programa de Obtenção de Navios-Patrulha, PRONAPA), is scheduled to be launched and commissioned in 2028, Adm Barbosa said.
He added that the AMRJ is also building the fourth Macaé-class boat, NPa Mangaratiba (P73), which is scheduled to be launched and commissioned in April and July 2026 respectively.
Adm Barbosa told Janes that a sixth Macaé-class boat, NPa Magé (P75), could be built from 2026, depending on budget availability.
The Macaé-class is based on the Vigilante 400 CL54 design of CMN Naval.
The initial two Macaé-class ships, the NPa Macaé (P70) and NPa Macau (P71) were commissioned from INACE (Indústria Naval do Ceará) in 2009 and 2010 respectively. The first Macaé-class boat built at the AMRJ, NPa Maracanã (P72), was commissioned in December 2022.
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