Description:
The Buque de Vigilancia Litoral (BVL) or Littoral Surveillance Vessel is a four ships class being built by Navantia at its San Fernando-Puerto Real shipyard for the Navy of Venezuela. The lead ship, named Guaicamacuto, was laid down on October 16, 2008. The Guaicamacuto-class ships have been designed to conduct surveillance and protection missions in the littoral environment, sea lanes protection, disaster relief, marine environmental protection, personnel and equipment transportation, search and rescue, divers support, anti-smuggling, anti-surface warfare (ASuW) and electronic warfare (EW) missions. These ships are provided with small and medium-caliber guns and an aft flight deck for operation of a rotary-wing aircraft. On November 28, 2008, Venezuela and Spain signed the procurement contract for four BVL and four POVZEE vessels to be delivered between August 2009 and 2011.
Specifications Dimensions: Beam 11.5 m, Draft 3.7 m, Length 80 m
Weights: Full Displacement 1,453 t
Performance: Top Speed 22 kt (41 kph)
Operators
Venezuela / 4
Ships
GC-21 Guaicamacuto
Launch/Keel Laying: Thursday, October 16, 2008 Commissioning: Tuesday, March 02, 2010
GC-22 Yavire / Under Construction
Launch/Keel Laying: Wednesday, March 11, 2009 Commissioning: August 2010
GC-23 Naiguata / Under Construction
Launch/Keel Laying: Wednesday, June 24, 2009 Commissioning: 2011
GC-24 / Under Construction
Commissioning: 2011
Image Gallery
Notes (*) lead contractor
IOC: Initial Operating Capability
FOC: Full Operating Capability
CEP: Circular Error Probable
Comm: Commissioning Date
Meters (m) Kilometers (km) Nautic Miles (nm) Inch (in) Yard (yd) Foot (ft) Millimeter (mm)
Pound (lb) Kilogram (kg) kN (KiloNewton) Ton (t)
Meters per Second (mps) Kilometers per Hour (kph) Knot (kt) Miles per Hour (mph)
Liter (l) Galon (gl)
Year (yr) Minutes (min) Second (sec)
Shaft-Horse-Power (shp)
Venezuela / 4