Almirante-class destroyer

The Almirante class were two destroyers built for the Chilean Navy by Vickers in Barrow in Furness, UK, in 1960. They served until the late 1990s. They were fitted with a unique Vickers designed 4-inch dual purpose naval gun. The ships were modernised in Britain in 1975, and decommissioned in the late 1990s.

Programme
Chile decided to upgrade its destroyer fleet in the early 1950s and turned to British yards to fulfill the order. Bids were received from Vickers and Thronycroft (Freedman 2006) with the Vickers design chosen. The order was announced in January 1954 and finalised in 1955. The sensors were a mixture of British and Netherlands made radars.

Chile had considered buying a second pair of destroyers in the mid-1960s (Freedman 2006) but instead purchased the two Condell class frigates a derivative of the Leander class frigate instead.

Ships
Vickers offered two similar ships to the Colombian Navy (Freedman 2006) but the Colombians bought two Halland class destroyers from Sweden instead.