Baptista de Andrade-class corvette

The Baptista de Andrade were a class of four Portuguese designed corvettes, built for the Portuguese Navy by BAZAN in Spain in the 1970s. They are an updated version of the João Coutinho class corvettes - designed by the Portuguese naval engineer Rogério de Oliveira - with more modern armament and sensors.

Like the João Coutinho ships, the Baptista de Andrade corvettes were intended to operate in the Portuguese overseas territories. Allegedly, the ships would originally be intended to the South African Navy, the delivery being canceled after the Portuguese Carnation Revolution in 1974. After Portugal withdrew from its colonies, the four ships were due to be sold to the Colombian Navy in 1977 but the deal was not completed.

One ship, the NRP Oliveira e Carmo, was decommissioned in 1999, the other three are in service but are due to retire soon and be replaced by Viana do Castelo class OPV's.