Macaé class Patrol Ship

The Macaé class is intended for guarding Brazilian territorial waters. These vessels are used for guarding and defending the coast, coastal maritime areas, and oil exploration and pumping platforms at sea. At the same time, they contribute to the missions of fighting drug trafficking, smuggling, and crimes against the marine environment, among others. The Navy of Brazil had in its studies, stipulated the construction of 46 Patrol Ships of the Class Macaé in national shipyards, however, the economic crisis reached in full the plans of the force. With a smaller budget than desired the Navy reduced the number of ships that would be built to 27 units.

The Macaé class Patrol Ship, designed by CMN and constructed in Brazil under management of EMGEPRON, is an offshore patrol vessel, suitable for vigilance missions and police tasks. She can be fitted with state-of-the-art equipment such as surveillance and navigational radars as well as a fire control system. The armament is composed of one medium calibre gun and two small calibre machine guns. The Macae class is based on the French CMN Vigilante 400 CL54 and had a displacement of around 500 tons, length of 54.2 metres, beam of 8 metres, an endurance of ten days and a complement of 35.

In May 2015 BAE Systems was awarded a contract to produce and deliver five Bofors 40 Mk4 Naval Guns for the Brazilian Navy’s 500T “Macae” Class Patrol Vessels. The 40 Mk4 gun is the latest naval version of the successful Bofors 40mm Gun that is used by many Navies and Coast Guards around the world. “The versatility of our new 40mm Naval Gun and Ammunition System is attractive to customers around the world,” said Lena Gillström, managing director of Weapon Systems, Sweden at BAE Systems. “This award illustrates our strong position as a leading naval gun provider in the Americas.”

Series production for the guns started immediately with deliveries beginning in 2016 and continuing through 2018. A portion of the manufacturing of parts, subsystems, as well as final assembly and test will take place in Brazil through BAE Systems’ new and long-term partners. The company recently teamed with Ares Aeroespacial e Defensa S.A. of Rio de Janeiro for manufacturing, assembly, and installation, as well as after-sales activities for the 40 Mk4 guns.

“This local production for the naval guns illustrates our commitment to establishing mutually beneficial partnerships with Brazilian industry,” said Llyr Jones, vice president for Latin America and Canada at BAE Systems. “We’re applying similar principles with our other Brazilian programs.” In the last 40 years, BAE Systems has delivered close to one hundred 40mm Guns to the Brazilian Navy, Marine Corps, and Army, as well as many thousands of rounds of 40mm ammunition. The company’s programmable, multi-purpose 3P round has been manufactured in Brazil since 1999. In addition to Brazil, countries currently using BAE Systems’ 40mm Guns include Japan, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Estonia, Uruguay, Indonesia, and Malaysia.

The Angolan Navy will receive seven Macae-class patrol boats from Brazil, with four to be built in Brazil and three in Angola. The Brazilian and Angolan defence ministers, Celso Amorim and João Manuel Lourenço, on 05 September 2014 signed a Technical Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) covering the production of the vessels as part of Angola’s Naval Power Development Programme (Pronaval). The Brazilian Navy’s Empresa Gerencial de Projetos Navais (Emgepron) will produce four of the vessels in Rio de Janeiro while the other three will be manufactured in a new Angolan shipyard to be built 200 km south of the Angolan capital Luanda, with technical advice, materials and equipment supplied by Brazil. The Brazilian Navy will provide education and training of Angolan personnel both to build and to operate the vessels that will be built in the new shipyard, the Brazilian Ministry of Defence said.

In January 2012 the Brazilian Navy’s Naval Engineering Directorate signed a contractual addendum with the Brazilian shipbuilder EISA for the construction of another 500-ton Macaé-class patrol boat. The decision to choose a private domestic shipbuilder fit the administration’s policy of incentives for naval construction and job creation, as well as responding to the need to increase the capacities of and strengthen the military-technology industrial sector. The contract signed with EISA, which includes a total of five vessels, foresaw the delivery of the first boat in December 2012, with another every six months after that.

Privately owned shipbuilder Estaleiro Ilha (EISA) was contracted to build ships Maracanã, Mangaratiba, Miramar, Magé, and Maragogipe. Located on Ilha do Governador, City of Rio de Janeiro, it was established in 1995 on the premises of the old Shipyard EMAQ, a traditional Brazilian shipbuilder since 1949. More than 490 vessels of the most varied types and sizes were built in this facility for traditional customers in Brazil and abroad, including the offshore segment, port, military and maritime and port support. Investing in equipment, technology and facilities, pioneer in naval engineering projects and actively participating in the growth of the country's shipbuilding industry. EISA took part in Naval Construction Programs created by the Brazilian government and which in the 70's made Brazil of 2nd world largest producer, surpassed only by Japan.

The financial problems of the Eisa shipyard began when Venezuela's PDVSA failed to honor the payment for the ordering of ten ships for a $ 1 billion deal. And they were aggravated by cancellations of orders by Petrobras. About three thousand employees of the Eisa Shipyard on Governador Island were dismissed from the company by a letter received 14 December 2015 when they arrived at work. The gates were sealed and could not even enter. In the message, signed by the shipyard's presidency - controlled by the Synergy Shipyards holding company, the company justifies that the cut in personnel is a consequence of the economic recession and Lava-Jato, "which paralyzed the activities of the naval and offshore industry".

The navy revoked the contract in February 2016 after EISA failed to fulfill contractual obligations, including delivery timelines. The first four were at different stages of construction. Brazil's state-owned shipyard Arsenal de Guerra do Rio de Janeiro (AMRJ), beginning in 2018, will work to complete construction of a third Macaé-class coastal patrol ship for the Brazilian Navy. The ship, Maracanã (P 72), already mostly built, was sent to AMRJ in Rio de Janeiro. The future Maracanã patrol vessel was transported from the EISA shipyard where its construction was interrupted due to its bankruptcy, to the Arsenal de Navy of Rio de Janeiro, so that work can be resumed in 2018.