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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Chile
Index
A freighter navigating Chile's scenic coastal waters
Courtesy Embassy of Chile, Washington
Naval Docks and Yards (Astilleros y Maestranzas de la
Armada--
Asmar) was established in 1895, with facilities at
Talcahuano and
Valparaíso. Asmar was reorganized on a commercial basis in
1960. In
early 1992, Asmar Talcahuano accounted for about 80
percent of the
activities of the corporation, despite the recent
upgrading of
repair facilities at Valparaíso and the inauguration of
smaller
ship repair maintenance facilities at Punta Arenas (the
latter
operated in collaboration with Sandok Austral of South
Africa).
With more than 4,500 employees, Asmar Talcahuano has
become the
largest and most modern shipyard on the Pacific Coast
south of
California. It has carried out repair and maintenance work
for
three foreign navies, in addition to its work for the
Chilean Navy
and Merchant Marine. Asmar has also performed contract
work on
units of the merchant fleets of such countries as Canada
and
Denmark.
Over the years, Asmar has built a number of minor
vessels for
the Chilean Navy and Coast Guard. Extensive modifications
were also
made to the four County-class missile destroyers purchased
from
Britain in the early 1980s. A combination of economic
difficulties
and the ready availability of suitable craft on the
secondhand
market had, however, prevented the construction of either
a
projected series of fifty-four-meter patrol craft, for
which a
license was obtained from Fairey Brooke Marine of Britain
in 1988,
or the P-400-type fast attack craft, for which a license
agreement
was negotiated with Chantiers de Normandie in the same
year. A
project to build at least four submarines was announced in
1990 but
had not progressed any further. However, Asmar displayed a
humantorpedo -type midget submarine, developed in association
with Cosmos
of Livorno, Italy, at FIDAE '92.
In early 1992, Asmar's Talcahuano facility was building
four
patrol boats for the navy, the first of which was
scheduled to be
in service in 1993. Asmar was also preparing a program for
four
helicopter-equipped offshore patrol vessels to police
Chile's 200-
nautical-mile exclusive economic zone.
In addition to its own independent electronics
division,
Military Manufacturers (Fabricaciones Militares--Fabmil),
founded
in 1982, Asmar has also established (in 1983) an
electronics
manufacturing and development subsidiary, Defense Systems
(Sistemas
Defensas--Sisdef), located in Viña del Mar. This firm, a
joint
venture with Britain's Feranti International, has
developed a
multipurpose radar system that is equally adaptable to use
aboard
ship or on land. Asmar itself has produced a naval gunnery
control
radar, which was fitted aboard the Almirante-class
destroyers and
other vessels of the Chilean Navy, a mortar-locating radar
for the
army, and a land-based air early warning radar. A newer
shipyard,
founded in 1974 with its facilities located at the mouth
of the Río
Valdivia in southern Chile, is Naval Shipyards and
Services
(Astilleros y Servicios Navales--Asenav).
Data as of March 1994
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