Niterói-class Frigate

The Niterói-class frigates are a class of frigates of the Brazilian Navy.

The Niterói-class were designed and built by the British shipyard Vosper Thornycroft (VT) in the 1970s. These frigates were designated the Mk.10 by Vosper Thornycroft and are the largest of a series of ships built by that shipyard for both foreign buyers and the Royal Navy.

All of them were extensively modernized between 1996 and 2005 under the 'ModFrag' program. The projected completion was 2001, but due to lack of funds and sea trials to verify the new software, the entire program had been slipped to 2005.

A total of six ships were built. Two of the anti submarine (ASW) and both of the general purpose (GP) version were built in England. The remaining two ASW ships were built at the Arsenal da Marinha in Rio de Janeiro with assistance from VT. The ASW ships had an Ikara missile launcher in Y position aft of the flight deck. This was removed as part of the modernization program. The GP ships had a second 4.5"/55-caliber Mk.8 gun in "Y" position. A seventh ship was built as the navy's main training unit. The ship is identical to the other ships of the class, but is not fitted with weapons or sensors.

Unit Run

 * NRB Niterói (F40)
 * NRB Defensora (F41)
 * NRB Constituição (F42)
 * NRB Liberal (F43)
 * NRB Independência (F44)
 * NRB União (F45)
 * NRB Brasil (U25) - training ship