ARA Azopardo (P-35)

ARA Azopardo is a World War II era Argentine Navy warship, originally classified as patrol boat and later as antisubmarine frigate. The vessel is named after Juan Bautista Azopardo, an Argentine naval officer that served in both the Argentine War of Independence and in the Cisplatine War. It is the third Argentine naval ship with this name.

Design
Azopardo was as part of a program to build four mine warfare ships during the Second World War, of which two (Murature and King) were completed as patrol boats and the others (Piedrabuena and Azopardo) as antisubmarine frigates.

History
Azopardo was ordered in 1940, however significant delays caused its keel to be laid only in 1950; it was launched in 1953 and completed two years later.

Azopardo did not take part of the rising against Juan Domingo Perón's government known as Revolución Libertadora, as she was still being completed at Río Santiago.

Between 1956 and 1967 it belonged to the Destroyers and Frigates Squadron of the Seas Fleet based in Puerto Belgrano Naval Base, and participated in various exercises. Due to the Cruz del Sur incident, in 1967 she was deployed to Ushuaia.

From 1969 to 1972 she was assigned to training duties with the cadets of the Argentine Navy Academy. She was decommissioned in July 1972, and sold for scrapping to the company AYARSA in December 1972.