ARA Almirante Irízar
Template:Short description Template:For
Template:Infobox ship imageTemplate:Infobox ship careerTemplate:Infobox ship characteristicsTemplate:Infobox ship characteristicsARA Almirante Irízar is a large icebreaker of the Argentine Navy. She was ordered from a shipyard in Finland in 1975.<ref name="Icebreaker ablaze in the South"/>
A fire broke out in her auxiliary generator compartment in 2007, putting her out of commission until April 2017.
Background
Template:More citations needed section The ship was named after Julián Irízar. In 1903, when he held the rank of Lieutenant, he commanded the Argentine corvette Template:Ship during a successful mission to rescue the Swedish Antarctic Expedition of Professor Otto Nordenskjöld, after the expedition had been trapped by the Antarctic winter.<ref name="Irizar sets sail on second Antarctic rescue mission"/>
The vessel was built at the Wärtsilä Helsinki Shipyard in Finland, under a contract signed in 1975 between the Argentine Navy and the shipyard. Irízar was launched in February 1978 and was formally commissioned on December that year, arriving in Argentina on 23 March 1979. She replaced the elderly icebreaker Template:Ship, which was then retired from active service.
Almirante IrízarTemplate:'s peacetime missions include annual campaigns to resupply and rotate the personnel assigned to the Argentine Antarctic outposts, as well as conducting and supporting scientific endeavors in Antarctica. She has also conducted several passenger tours to Patagonia and the Antarctic.
The ship's homeport is at the Argentine Navy's Buenos Aires Naval Anchorage (Template:Langx) in the capital city of Buenos Aires.
Service
During the Falklands War (Template:Langx) the vessel served as troop transport on the 2 April operation<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and then as a hospital ship,<ref name="Irizar sets sail on second Antarctic rescue mission" /> Helicopters departing from Almirante Irizar's helipad landed Argentine troops on Darwin and Fox Bay on 2 April 1982.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
In April 1982, while operating north of the Falklands, the boilers of tanker ARA Punta Médanos failed and she lost all propulsion; Almirante Irízar towed her back to Puerto Madryn (about 330 miles west) in rough weather, the trip took about 60 hours. Punta Médanos couldn't be repaired, and was unable to continue operations during the war.<ref name="Irizar – Punta Médanos">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
After the end of the war, she was converted into a hospital ship.<ref name="Irizar sets sail on second Antarctic rescue mission" />
The ship gained attention in 2002, when she attempted to rescue the supply vessel Magdalena Oldendorff, which was trapped in pack ice off Antarctica.<ref name="Russian scientists reach safety"/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Even though Irízar failed to break Magdalena Oldendorff free, she managed to move it to a safer position and resupply the ship with food, medicine and medical personnel until the ice melted and Magdalena Oldendorff could return to open sea.<ref name="El rompehielos Irízar regresa a casa"/><ref name="El Oldendorff se queda en la Antártida"/>
2004 incident
On 15/16 March 2004, the ship entered a maritime area designated as conservation zones under the jurisdiction of the Falkland Islands and issued demands for other ships to identify themselves.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> This prompted a protest from the British government to the Argentine government over its policing of seas under Falkland jurisdiction. The diplomatic note also re-asserted British sovereignty over the islands.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
2007 fire
On 10 April 2007 at 22:00 UTC−03:00,<ref name="Icebreaker ablaze in the South"/> a massive fire broke out in the auxiliary generator compartment.<ref name="Crew Abandons Argentine Icebreaker" /> By midnight,<ref name="Icebreaker ablaze in the South"/> captain Guillermo Tarapow had ordered the evacuation.<ref name="Crew Abandons Argentine Icebreaker" /> Argentine Navy and Argentine Coast Guard aircraft, including P-3 Orion and Hercules C-130 aircraft,<ref name="Icebreaker ablaze in the South"/> operated to keep track of the 24 lifeboats.<ref name="Crew Abandons Argentine Icebreaker" /> The 296 persons aboard the icebreaker —including civilians of the Antarctic bases— were helped by the nearest ships, the Panamanian tanker Scarlet Ibis and a Uruguayan fishing vessel. The icebreaker was returning from its annual Antarctic summer campaign, and the incident took place some Template:Convert east of Puerto Madryn.<ref name="Crew Abandons Argentine Icebreaker"/>
The crew arrived safely in Puerto Madryn on 12 April. There were no casualties.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
The vessel's captain remained aboard alone for almost 24 hours after seeing his crew safely evacuated from the ship. Starting 11 April,Template:Citation needed destroyer Template:Ship,<ref name="Aceleran">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Olas">Template:Cite news</ref> corvettes ARA Granville,<ref name="Olas"/> and Template:Ship,<ref name="Aceleran"/><ref name="Olas"/> avisos ARA Gurruchaga,Template:Citation needed Template:Ship,<ref name="Aceleran"/><ref name="Olas"/> and Template:Ship,<ref name="Aceleran"/><ref name="Olas"/> and Coast Guard Template:Ship,Template:Citation needed surrounded the icebreaker and began rescue operations. Buzos Tacticos and members of the Rescue Team (Template:Langx) of the Argentine Navy boarded the ship and extinguished the fire. On 18 April, the ship started being towed to the Puerto Belgrano naval base.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Irizar finally arrived to Puerto Belgrano on 20 April.<ref name="Llegó el rompehielos Irízar a Puerto Belgrano" />
The fire caused the loss of the two Sea King helicopters stored in their hangar, worth Template:US$ million each.<ref name="Ardió el rompehielos Almirante Irízar" /> These have been replaced by four Sea Kings transferred from the US government.Template:Citation needed
Following this incident the British government offered to supply Argentine bases in Antarctica in support of scientific missions, using Template:HMS.<ref name="British support to replace Argentina's stricken Irizar"/> This offer was turned down by the Argentine government,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> instead they leased the Russian icebreaking vessel Vasily Golovnin for the subsequent Antarctic summer campaigns<ref name="Russian icebreaker 'Vasily Golovnin' supplying Argentine Antarctica bases"/><ref name="Russian chartered polar vessel supports Argentine Antarctic 2010/11 campaign"/> at a cost of US$2m/month.<ref name="Argentine navy short on spares and resources for training and maintenance"/> The Dutch cargo vessel Timca was hired for the 2012/13 campaign.<ref name="Almirante Irizar en route to becoming another major scandal for Argentina's navy"/><ref name="Argentine Antarctic campaigns disarray and corruption claims turn off recruiting" /> Vasily Golovnin would again carry out the following Antarctic campaign.<ref name="Llega un buque ruso para la nueva campaña a la Antártida" />
Upgrade
After a long period in Puerto Belgrano due to legal issues surrounding the incident, Irízar finally arrived in Buenos Aires on 3 September 2008 to be taken to Tandanor's shipyard for repairs. Repairs were expected to be completed in 2010 but continued into 2011, and were supervised by Norwegian shipyard Aker Yards.<ref name="El rompehielos Irízar llegó al puerto de Buenos Aires para ser reparado"/><ref name="El rompehielos Irízar llega a Buenos Aires para ser reparado"/> Template:As of, the refit had thus far cost over Template:US$ million and the ship was not expected to be ready until late 2013.<ref name="Argentine navy short on spares and resources for training and maintenance"/> In Template:Start date, it was disclosed that the ship was still awaiting the necessary repairs and that sea trials had been delayed by a year, with oppositors claiming the money spent —some Template:US$ million plus another Template:US$ million in contracting supplying vessels<ref name="Almirante Irizar en route to becoming another major scandal for Argentina's navy"/>— could have been used to buy a new ship;<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> a month later, it was announced that work regarding control panels was still pending.<ref name="Almirante Irizar en route to becoming another major scandal for Argentina's navy" />
The Tandanor shipyard repaired the fire damage and also reconfigured the vessel to increase laboratory space from Template:Convert up to Template:Convert. This allows the ship to be used primarily as a research vessel in addition to its role of resupplying the southernmost Antarctic base Belgrano II.<ref name="La reparación de un buque único"/> The diesel engines have been replaced by four new ones purchased from MAN in October 2011.<ref name="La reparación de un buque único"/><ref name="Argentine refurbished ice-breaker should be ready for 2012/13 Antarctic season"/><ref name="El Irízar, más cerca de volver a navegar"/> The main radar of Irízar was also repaired in Argentina by CITEDEF.<ref name="citedef">La Armada Argentina solicitó una cotización para la reparación del radar del Irízar y ésta fue de 5.5 millones de dólares, mientras que el CITEDEF lo reparará por 1.3 millones de dólares Template:Webarchive</ref> Work was initially estimated to be finished by November 2011,<ref name="Un recorrido por las devastadas entrañas del rompehielos Irízar" /> but it was not until April 2017 that the icebreaker was declared seaworthy again.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
On 4 July, Almirante Irízar sailed for open sea trials for the first time in ten years. After departing Buenos Aires, the vessel headed to a dry dock in the main base of Argentine Navy, Puerto Belgrano, where the icebreaker underwent tests and verifications prior to ice trials in the Antarctic and return to full service.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In November 2017, the ship came back to Buenos Aires after successfully passing its "ice test", the last stage of its restoration work that left it ready for service again. It was confirmed that it will be present on the Antarctic 2018 campaign.<ref>El rompehielos Irizar llegó al puerto de Buenos Aires y formará parte de la campaña antártica Nuestromar.org.ar, 4 November 2017. Template:Retrieved</ref> The ship remained active in the early 2020s and was joined by the auxiliary vessels Puerto Argentino and Estrecho San Carlos for operations during the 2022/23 Antarctic re-supply mission.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Second Antarctic vessel
In November 2014, the Argentine government awarded the design contact for the new Antarctic vessel to the Finnish engineering company Aker Arctic.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> After initial concept development, the project was put on hold until May 2022 when the design work again continued. The Polar Class 4 vessel intended to work alongside Almirante Irízar will be built by Tandanor in Argentina and enter service in the late 2020s.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
References
Further reading
External links
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