Espora - class corvette The " Espora " class corvettes are six warships of the Argentine Navy built in Argentina to the German MEKO 140A16 design , this in turn being based on the Portuguese " João Coutinho " class project . The first entered service in 1985 but accidents and lack of funds meant the last was not completed until 2004 . The ships currently form the 2nd Corvette Division of the Argentine Navy and their home port is the Puerto Belgrano Naval Base . Although considered by its designers to be frigate s , the " Espora " class vessels have been classed in Argentina as corvette s . The Argentine Navy struggles to meet maintenance and training requirements because of financial problems and import restrictions . The " Espora " class has not been immune - the " Espora " herself spent 73 days in South Africa in late 2012 in a dispute about payment for repairs to its generators . The operational status of " Parker " and " Rosales " is not clear , as of November 2012 they were waiting for spares , whilst " Spiro " lost her sonar in a grounding accident in August 2012 . Construction . The 1974 Naval Constructions National Plan was an initiative by the Argentine Navy to replace old World War II - vintage ships with more advanced warships . The original plan called for six MEKO 360H2 destroyers , four of them to be built in Argentina , but the plan was later modified to include four MEKO destroyers built in Germany and six corvettes built in Argentina , for anti - surface warfare and patrol operations . The ships were designed by the German shipyard Blohm + Voss as a development of the Portuguese Navy ' s " João Coutinho " class corvettes , designed by the Portuguese naval engineer Rogério de Oliveira in the late 1960s . All the ships of the class were built in Argentina at the AFNE " Río Santiago " shipyard , close to the city of La Plata in Buenos Aires Province . The contract was signed on 1 August 1979 and the pennant number s " P10 " - " P15 " were assigned until they were changed to " P41 " - " P46 " in 1988 . The first three ( " P - 41 " - " P - 43 " ) were commissioned between 1985 and 1987 , but " Parker " was delayed until 1990 after flooding on 2 October 1986 . Fitting out of " Robinson " and " Gómez Roca " was suspended in 1992 , briefly restarted in July 1994 and resumed on 18 July 1997 . These last two have improved automation , communication and electronics systems ; along with " Parker " they have a telescoping hangar fitted . All members of the class have the Thales DAISY combat data system , but " Robinson " has an indigenous command system as well . Service history . " Spiro " and " Rosales " participated in the multinational task force blockading Iraq as part of Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm in 1990 / 1 . The " Esporas " enforced the Argentine Exclusive Economic Zone and captured a number of illegal fishing vessels in the early 1990s . In August 2012 the " Spiro " hit a sandbank as she left Mar del Plata and lost her sonar . This meant the " Espora " had to make an unscheduled deployment to replace her in the Atlasur IX exercise off West Africa . " Espora " left home with unresolved problems in her generators , which became worse until she ended up in South Africa with three failed generators . The German manufacturers MTU refused to repair them without payment in advance since Argentina still owed them money for previous work , so the " Espora " spent 73 days in Simonstown until the dispute was finally resolved and the repairs completed . Ships in the class . First Batch : Second Batch :