Navios de Propósitos Múltiplos de Emprego Oceânico: sua importância para o poder naval brasileiro

Abstract

The hierarchy of the Navy’s strategic and tactical objectives, included inthe National Defence Strategy (END), states that, in order to guarantee its power todeny the useof sea by enemy, Brazil needs to keep its capability focused on projectingpower and creating conditions so as to control maritime areas and interior waters ofpolitical, strategic, economic and military importance, as well as its maritime traderoutes. For this purpose, the Surface Naval Force should be equipped with large navalassets, with the capability to operate and to remain for a long time in open seas, as wellas with smaller vessels to patrol the coast and the main navigable rivers. Amongst thelarge vessels, the Navy should pay especial attention to the design and construction ofMultiple Purposes Ships (NPM). The procurement by means of sale opportunities offlexible and versatile ships, make possible to equip the Navy with assets with thecapability to be deployed in several tasks of the Naval Power. Nevertheless, it isnecessary to well define the most important features these naval assets should be fittedwith, so as to set the limits and to improve the procedures for the acquisitions. Thesehigh technologic ships with the capability to perform several roles are more and morebecoming the main pillars of contemporary Navies, considering that they can reconcileseveral aspects of the evolve nature of naval war, smuggling and piracy. Currently, thereare a lot of new designs being classified as multipurpose, however, it is difficult toclearly establish the limits of such a kind of vessel, since they vary a lot according to theNavies’ requirements, and, most important, to the reality they have toface. On the navalarchitecture point of view, a multipurpose vessel is a vessel that is designed from thevery early beginning to combine and fulfil different requirements in order to bedeployed in different scenarios with different missions. When the designers do so, theyhave to be very careful in order to reach a balanced design in terms of quality andefficiency, within the allotted budget. But to combine requirements of different types ofships that usually do not match it is not an easy task, because sometimes they can beeither very difficult to be balanced or cannot even be simultaneously satisfied due totheir intrinsic incompatibility. This thesis presents, in the beginning, the position ofBrazil in the international scenario. Then some NPM from important Navies are listed,including their main features and capabilities, as well as possibilities of deployment.After that, the Defence legal papers that are the basis for the use of NPM in theBrazilian Navy, including NDM “Bahia” and PHM “Atlântico” with the maindocuments associated to their acquisitions are presented and analysed. Finally, theauthor depicts the difficulty to procure a ship that should fully fulfil all the requirementsconceived by the Brazilian Navy –the so called ideal NPM.