João Coutinho class corvette

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, but the urgent need of their services in the 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, Guiné-Bissau and Cabo Verde. After the African colonies gained their independence, the corvettes were assigned to patrol duties in Portuguese territorial waters.

The "João Coutinho" served as the basis for several other designs: "Baptista de Andrade" class corvettes (Portugal), "Descubierta" class frigates (Spain, Egypt and Morroco) and "Espora" class (MEKO 140) frigates (Argentina).

hips

References

*cite book
last = Afonso
first = Aniceto
coauthors = Carlos de Matos Gomes
title = Guerra Colonial
publisher = Editorial Noticias
date = 2000
pages = pp. 378-380
isbn = 9-7246-1192-2 (Portuguese text)
*cite web
title = NRP João Coutinho
url=http://www.marinha.pt/Marinha/PT/Menu/DescobrirMarinha/MeiosOperacionais/Superficie/Corvetas/Classe+Jo%C3%A3o+Coutinho/NRPJoaoCoutinho.htm
accessdate = 2008-09-07 (Portuguese text)