ARA Bahía San Blas (B-4)

ARA Bahía San Blas is an Amphibious cargo ship of the Argentine Navy, capable of discharging landing craft, troops, vehicles and cargo. Is the first ship to bear the name of the Bay of San Blas in the south of Buenos Aires Province.

History
Bahia San Blas is a Costa Sur class vessel built at Astilleros Príncipe, Menghi y Penco at Buenos Aires in 1978 entering service on November of that year in the Transport Maritime service of the Argentine Navy. The other ships of the class are the ARA Canal de Beagle and ARA Cabo de Hornos.

In 1991 was deployed to the Persian Gulf during operations Desert Shield/Desert Storm carrying humanitarian aid and providing logistic support to the Argentine warships in the area.

In 1992 transported back from the Gulf of Fonseca the four Barradero class patrol boats used under United Nations mandate ONUCA

After the retirement of the ARA Cabo San Antonio, San Blas became the main vessel for use by the Argentine Marines receiving several modifications.

Since 2004, an Argentine contingent was deployed to Haiti under MINUSTAH mandate and the San Blas has been used for logistic support making several voyages to the Caribbean island