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Peru Navy
As of 1992, the navy had a total complement of 22,000
personnel, including 2,000 officers, 10,000 conscripts,
and 3,000
marines. Volunteers included at least fifty enlisted
servicewomen
in the navy, some with ranks and regular two-year service
duties,
others with one-day-a-week and Saturday duties for one
year. The
former could reenlist for additional two-year periods, the
latter
for one. They performed mostly administrative tasks.
The number of naval personnel increased by more than
100
percent (and the marines by 150 percent) during the 1980s,
more
rapidly than any other service grew (see
table 24,
Appendix). In
large measure, the increase had resulted from the
completion
during the decade of a major modernization program begun
during
the military government of 1968-80. By the end of the
1980s, the
Peruvian Navy had replaced that of Chile as the third
largest in
Latin America, behind only Brazil and Argentina.
Reporting directly to the commander in chief of the
navy were
the chief of staff and the commanders of the Pacific Naval
Force,
Amazon River Force, Callao Naval Base, and the Naval
Studies
Center (Centro de Estudios Navales--CEN). The two key
components
were the Pacific Naval Force and the Amazon River Force.
By far
the most important was the Pacific fleet, with ten
submarines,
two cruisers, six destroyers, four missile frigates, and
six
missile attack craft (see
table 25, Appendix). Most were
based at
the Callao Naval Base, with the submarines at San Lorenzo
Island;
there was also a small base at Talara in the northwestern
department of Piura. The Amazon River Force had four river
gunboats and some twenty small craft, most at the main
base at
Iquitos, with a subsidiary facility at Madre de Dios.
Additional
components included the Lake Titicaca Patrol Force, with
about a
dozen small patrol boats, based at Puno; and the Naval Air
Service with about sixty aircraft between Jorge Chávez
International Airport at Lima (fixed wing) and the Callao
Naval
Base (a helicopter squadron and a training unit). The
greatly
expanded Marine Infantry of Peru (Infantería de Marina del
Perú--
Imap) included an amphibious brigade and local security
units
with two transports (one used as a school ship), four
tanklanding ships, and about forty Brazilian Chaimite armored
personnel carriers. Since 1982 Imap detachments have been
deployed, under army command, in counterinsurgency
capacities in
Ayacucho and Huancavelica departments.
Ten submarines gave Peru the largest underwater fleet
in
Latin America. Six of the submarines that entered into
service
between 1974 and 1977 were Type 209, built for Peru in
West
Germany. All were conventionally powered with eight
twentyone -inch torpedo tubes and had a complement of five
officers and
twenty-six technicians and enlisted personnel. The other
submarines were former United States Navy craft that had
been
refitted and transferred to the Peruvian Navy. One was a
Guppy IA
class launched in 1944 and acquired from the United States
Navy
in 1975, with ten twenty-one-inch torpedo tubes and a
personnel
complement of eighty-four. The other three were newer
modified
Mackerel class, launched between 1953 and 1957, with six
twentyone -inch torpedo tubes and a crew of forty.
The two cruisers were the former Netherlands De
Ruyter
and De Zeven Provincien, purchased in 1973 and 1976
and
renamed the Almirante Grau and the Aguirre,
respectively. The Almirante Grau was reconditioned
in the
late 1980s to include eight surface-to-surface missiles
(Otomats), in addition to its eight 152-mm surface guns
and 57-mm
and 40-mm antiaircraft guns. The Aguirre carried
the same
guns (four 152-mm) but had been modified for a hangar and
flight
deck for three Sea King helicopters equipped with Exocet
missiles. Each cruiser had a crew of 953, including
forty-nine
officers.
Peru's six destroyers were all older ships from the
1940s and
early 1950s. The two former British destroyers, renamed
Ferré and Palacios, had been refitted to
accommodate eight Exocet missile launchers and a
helicopter deck
in addition to their regular armament of six 114-mm guns
and two
40-mm antiaircraft guns. The other four destroyers were
those
remaining in active service of the eight purchased from
the
Netherlands between 1978 and 1982 (the other four were
cannibalized for parts); their armament included four
120-mm
guns.
Contrasting with these older, even antiquated former
Dutch
destroyers were the four modern Lupo-type frigates and six
fast
missile attack craft. Two of the frigates, Melitón
Carvajal and Manuel Villavicencio, were
completed in
Italy in 1979; the other two sister ships were constructed
at the
Callao Naval Base under license to the Maritime Industrial
Service (Servicio Industrial de Marina--Sima), a public
company
with three operational centers (Callao, Chimbote, and
Iquitos)
and launched in the early 1980s. Equipment and armament
for each
included an Agusta Bell 212 helicopter, eight Otomats, two
batteries of surface-to-air missiles, and a 127-mm gun.
The six
missile attack craft, each equipped with four Exocet
missiles,
were built in France for Peru and completed in 1980 and
1981.
These ships were the most important component of Peru's
surface
navy because of their speed, versatility, and relatively
recent
construction.
Data as of September 1992
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