laststandonzombieisland

To replace their aging Fletcher-class destroyers and augment their dozen Auk-class minesweepers (Valle-class patrol vessels) which dated back to WWII, the Armada de México in the late 1970s came up with the Uribe class. These Spanish-designed (Bazan) and locally built 220-foot offshore patrol vessel of which the class leader was commissioned in 1982 mounted a single 40mm Bofors L70 up front and a few machine guns for when local narco boats and fish poachers didn’t want to stop and be boarded.

They were simple 1000-ton ships, built to commercial specs with a pair of MTU diesels that sipped gas and gave them a decent 8,000 nm range though a top speed of just 18 knots. However they had a helipad and hangar for a M500/BO 105-sized chopper and two small boats to help catch vessels that could go faster. They could be manned by 40 crew though had accommodations for almost twice that because you never know.

Six Uribes were built followed by four Holzinger-class near sisters, and another four Sierra-class “corvettes” (longer and with Cat diesels that gave 21-knots but still based on the Uribe). Forming the backbone of the Armada, these 14 ships gave a lot of practical service. Now, they are becoming worn out and are being replaced by the all-Mexican designed/built Durago and Oaxaca-class OPVs which are much larger (1,500 tons) and have stealth features as well as a more up-to date gun (76mm OTO) and room for a platoon of Marines.

ARM Uribe (P121) was retired in 2013 at the end of her useful 30 year life, stripped and cleaned for preparation as an artificial reef to both benefit local tourism and fisheries stocks.

Further, when the Mexican Navy sank Uribe in shallow water off Rosarita Mexico last November for use as a reef, they filmed the event in detail using 7 GoPros.

The charges go off with an underwhelming and not very Hollywood series of muted “bangs” accompanied by sparks and a puff of smoke then, with building suspense, the first water starts to find its way into the stricken vessel, soon engulfing it in a blue-green avalanche of unstoppable ocean. You see the ship race 95 short feet through the water in less than a minute, steel groaning in protest to its final resting place on the floor of the Gulf of California where it lands with a crunch and settles.

Instant reef and new addition to Davy Jones’ locker.