BUENOS AIRES --- The Minister of Defense, Jorge Taiana, and the Governor of the Province of Buenos Aires, Axel Kicillof, today signed an agreement for the TANDANOR and Río Santiago shipyards to advance in the construction of a multipurpose landing ship, a polar ship, and a floating dock. and in the modernization of the MEKO 140 for the Argentine Navy.
“Today we are signing a very important agreement, because it seeks to recover the capabilities of our Armed Forces. The construction of a multipurpose ship will allow us to provide a better and faster response to any emergency or natural catastrophe," said the minister during the signing.
"In addition, we are going to have a new floating dock in a strategic place in bicontinental Argentina such as the integrated Naval Base of Ushuaia, which will allow not only to repair our ships with lower costs, but will also provide the possibility for the country to attend to emergencies involving vessels of other flags,” said Taiana.
"These projects articulate a working link between the two public companies, TANDANOR and Río Santiago, which is also part of our objective, to continue working in a network of public and private companies that contribute their capabilities for the production of Defense,” he concluded.
Kicillof said "It is very important that the province of Buenos Aires and the Ministry of Defense work together on projects to strengthen sovereignty and that enable greater autonomy for our country" adding "We have the necessary capacities in hand work, with professionals, engineers, as to reactivate the naval industry and we are doing it.”
The agreement is intended to recover Argentine Navy capabilities, and to promote the work of public shipyards. It covers the construction of a multipurpose landing ship that will provide support and assistance to the population in emergency situations or natural disasters, whose construction will begin before August 2023.
Likewise, the dock will serve to carry out the dry laying of vessels in the South of Argentina in order to reduce operating and maintenance costs of ships that carry out various Antarctic campaigns. It will be located at the Integrated Naval Base in Ushuaia, and will be able to provide maintenance to OPVs, Neftegaz class warnings and Meko 140 corvettes, as well as third-party ships that sail in the Argentine sea.
Finally, both companies also promised to work together to carry out the modernization of the Meko 140 corvettes, and agreed the participation of Astilleros Río Santiago in the construction of the polar ship that TANDANOR is currently building.
Present at the signing were the Chief of Staff, Héctor Mazzei; the head of the Navy, Admiral Julio Horacio Guardia; the General Director of Navy Materiel, Rear Admiral Marcelo Jorge Calvete; the Minister of Production, Science and Technological Innovation of the Province of Buenos Aires, Augusto Costa; the Minister of Labor, Walter Correa; the mayors of Ensenada, Mario Secco and of Berisso, Fabian Gagliardi; the president of TANDANOR, Miguel Tudino and the president of the Río Santiago shipyard, Pedro wasiejko, among other special guests.
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