The Baptista de Andrade class were a class of four Portuguese designed corvettes, built for the Portuguese Navy by BAZAN in Spain in the 1970s. They are an updated version of the João Coutinho class - designed by the Portuguese naval engineer Rogério de Oliveira - with more modern armament and sensors.

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Quick Facts Class overview, General characteristics ...

NRP Baptista de Andrade (F 486), 1998
Class overview
Name	Baptista de Andrade
Builders	Bazan, Ferrol (Spain)
Operators	Portuguese Navy
Preceded by	João Coutinho class
Succeeded by	Viana do Castelo-class patrol vessel
Built	1972-76
In commission	1974-present day
Completed	4
Active	1
Retired	3
General characteristics
Type	Corvette
Displacement	1,203 tons standard, 1,380 tons full load
Length	84.6 m (278 ft)
Beam	10.3 m (34 ft)
Draught	3.1 m (10 ft)
Propulsion	2 shaft, 2 OEW Pielstick diesel engines, 10,560 hp (7,870 kW)
Speed	23 knots (43 km/h)
Range	5,900 nautical miles (10,900 km; 6,800 mi) at 18 knots (33 km/h)
Complement	113
Sensors and processing systems	Former: Radar: AWS-2 air search(Removed later), TM-626 navigation, Pollux fire control Sonar: Diodon Current:[when?] Radar: Kelvin Hughes KH5000, Racal Decca RM316P
Armament	1 × 100 mm (4 in) gun 2 × single 40 mm/L70 Bofors guns 2 × triple 12.75-inch (324 mm) ASW torpedo tubes
Aviation facilities	1 helicopter pad for 1 x Super Lynx Mk.95

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Like the João Coutinho ships, the Baptista de Andrade corvettes were intended to operate in the Portuguese overseas territories. Allegedly, the ships would originally be intended to the South African Navy, the delivery being canceled after the Portuguese Carnation Revolution in 1974. After Portugal withdrew from its colonies, the four ships were due to be sold to the Colombian Navy in 1977 but the deal was not completed.

One ship, NRP Oliveira e Carmo, was decommissioned in 1999 and was officially scrapped on 1 November 2007 and later sunk as an artificial reef on 30 October 2012.^[1] NRP Afonso Cerqueira was decommissioned on 13 February 2015 and later sunk as an artificial reef off Madeira.^[2] Another ship was decommissioned in 2017 and the last one remains in limited service but will be retired and replaced by Viana do Castelo-class patrol vessels.