The Brazilian Navy commissioned its newest stealth frigate into service during a ceremony on Friday, April 24.
Tamandaré is the lead ship of a new class of frigates being built by Águas Azuis, a consortium formed by German defence shipbuilder TKMS via subsidiary ThyssenKrupp Estaleiro Brasil Sul, Embraer Defense and Security, and Atech.
Although built in Brazil to comply with Brazilian Government requirements for major defence programs, the Tamandaré-class ships are based on the MEKO A-100 frigate originally developed by Germany, making the Brazilian Navy the second export customer of the sub-type (the MEKO A-100 also served as the basis for the Polish Navy’s offshore patrol vessel ORP Ślązak).
Tamandaré will be used for both territorial defence – encompassing anti-air, anti-surface and anti-submarine warfare – and humanitarian aid missions.
Her armament includes a Leonardo 76mm naval gun, a Rheinmetall Sea Snake 30mm close-in weapon system, two FN Herstal Sea Defender 12.7mm machine guns on remote weapon stations, 12 Sea Ceptor surface-to-air missiles housed in a vertical launch system, 12 anti-ship missiles, a Terma C-Guard decoy launcher, and torpedoes that are to be fired from port and starboard triple launchers.
On the same day as Tamandaré's commissioning, the Brazilian Ministry of Defence, TKMS and Embraer entered into a memorandum of understanding for the construction of four additional frigates from the same class.