Spanish oiler Patiño

Patiño is a replenishment oiler of the Spanish Navy. It was named after the Spanish navy minister José Patiño Rosales, who reorganized the fleet on the orders of Philip V of Spain.

The ship was ordered in December 1991 from Navantia. It was launched on 22 June 1994 and completed in June 1995. Patiño was commissioned in June 1995 with the pennant number A14. The vessel's homeport is at Naval Station Rota.

Design
Patiño is a product of cooperation between Koninklijke Marine and Armada Española. The design of the ship is similar to HNLMS Amsterdam of the Royal Netherlands Navy, the vessels were developed in cooperation. Patiño was mostly a civilian design. The vessel is 170 m and measures 17,045 tons but displaces 7,780 tons. The oiler has a crew of 148 plus 20 extra berths.

Propulsion
Patiño is fitted with two Navantia / Burmeister and Wein 16V40/45 diesel engines rated to 17.6 MW sustained power. The engines drive a single shaft with a five-blade controllable-pitch propeller. This gives the vessel a maximum speed of 20 kn and a range of 13,450 nmi.

Electronics
Patiño is fitted with three navigation-surface search and helicopter control radars operating at I-band. The management of the ships communications is made through the Integrated Communications Control System (ICCS 3rd generation) from the Portuguese EID. The countermeasures equipment includes: four mk36 SRBOC (super rapid blooming offboard chaff), six-barrelled launchers from Lockheed Martin Sippican der four infrared decoys and chaff, distraction and deflection of incoming anti-ship missiles to a range of 4 km; an AN/SLQ-25A Nixie towed torpedo decoy system from Argon ST of Newington, Virginia. The two towed units emit acoustic signals from an onboard transmitter. The vessel is also equipped with an Aldebaran Electronic Support Measures / Electronic Countermeasures (ESM / ECM) system from Spain's Indra Group.

Armament
Patiño's weapons system include two Oerlikon 20mm guns and the vessel is fitted for two Izar FABA Systems Meroka 20mm close-in weapon system (CIWS). The guns having a rate of fire of 1.440 rounds a minute and range of up to 2000 m. The Meroka CIWS includes an infrared camera and video auto-tracker.

Aircraft
Patiño is designed to carry up to five helicopters. It has a normal complement of only three Sikorsky SH-3 Sea Kings with 19 air crew provided.

Capabilities
The ship is able to support a fleet for up to 21 days, and is equipped with six fuel pumps with a capacity of 600 m3 of fuel per minute. A typical fleet consists of five escort carriers and about 20 aircraft.

Diesel (F76) (spread over 16 different tanks): 8750 tons Aviation fuel (F44): 1200 tons (Holland rebuilt in 2003 a tank to contain F76) Freshwater (1 tank): 142 ton Food (over 1 tørproviantrum, 1 cold room and freezer 1): 1100 tons Ammunition (spread over 5 rooms): 350 ton

Operation Sharp Guard, 1996
Patiño participated in the NATO Operation Sharp Guard, to support the trade embargo against the former Yugoslavia.

Operation Allied Action, 1998
In 1998, Patiño participated in Operation Allied Action during the Kosovo War.

Patiño was also involved a long series of international exercises such as Joint Warrior and Seattle Mariner and has also sailed as part of the NATO Standing NATO Maritime Group 1 (SNMG1) and Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 (SNMG2).

Operation Enduring Freedom
In 2002, Patiño and the Spanish frigate SPANISH FRIGATE Navarra took part in Operation Enduring Freedom. In December 2002, the media spotlight directed at the Spanish ships as they boarded the North Korean merchant ship So San, which was pretending to be a Colombian trading ship.

So San, sailed without flag and tried to steer elusive. After four warning shots across the ship's bows, Spanish marksmen hit and cut a sling crossing the deck to make room for inserting a boarding team by helicopter. On board the ship the Spanish marines found 15 Scud missiles with conventional warheads of 250 kg, 23 tanks of nitric acid and 85 drums of other chemicals. Yemen stated that the cargo belonged to them and that they protested against the seizure of the ship. It subsequently emerged that the Yemeni defense had purchased the missiles legally from North Korea and that they therefore had no legal authority to detain the ship. The Spanish marines disembarked and So San was let go.

Somalia, 2010 to 2015
Patiño was deployed and operates as part of the European Union's Operation Atalanta security mission. The EU force NAVFOR, a multinational mission to protect ships, patrols the region in the perilous shipping route off the coast of Somalia. Patino was the NAVFOR flagship.

On 8 December 2010, Patiño arrived off Somalia and became the flagship of the operation under Rear Admiral Juan Rodriguez on 14 December. Her role as the flagship lasted until 21 January 2011. By the end of November 2011 the vessel returned to the Indian Ocean to take her second tour at Operation Atalanta. As a replenishment ship she supported other vessels of the operation with oil and other supplies and also escorted ships with humanitarian help to Somalia.

12 January Piracy Incident
In the early morning of 12 January 2012, Patiño was attacked by Somali pirates, apparently under the assumption that the ship was just a commercial vessel. The Spanish naval vessel fought off an attack by the pirates. Patiño then sent one of her helicopters to chase the attackers and captured six of them while one was reported killed. Patiño had been escorting a ship carrying food aid to Somalia for the World Food Programme.

Canada, 2016
In 2015 the Canadian and Spanish governments concluded a deal where Patiño and SPS Cantabria would deploy with Canadian naval forces in the Atlantic as their replenishment vessel in 2016. This would be done primarily for training missions. Patiño would be made available to the Royal Canadian Navy from January to March 2016. The ship deployed with the Royal Canadian Navy beginning on 12 February 2016 for two months. The ship returned to Spain on 30 March 2016. Beginning 1 September, Patiño deployed with the Royal Canadian Navy for 79 days, returning to Ferrol on 18 November.