Argentina does not accept the gift of a frigate offered by South Korea

The government, through a letter from Defense Minister Oscar Aguad, will reject the donation of a frigate from the Ulsan clbad offered by South Korea. The defense attaché of that country, Lieutenant-Colonel Ho Lim, representing the government of Seoul, presented in January 2019 the donation of a warship for the Argentine Navy. The Navy organized a commission that inspected the state of the basic systems of boating safety and frigate machinery. The refusal of the frigate's gift is based on logistical support issues to ensure the maintenance and disposal of spare parts. The ship is part of the first set of 4 units built in the 1980s by Hyundai Heavy Industries and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering. The core lies in the integrated power plant of two General Electric (GE) LM 2500 gas turbines and two MTU 16V 538 TB82 (cruising) diesel engines in a combined diesel or gas configuration (CODOG). The Argentine Navy does not have this type of turbine in any of the warships in service. The installation of a logistic support line from another source for a single ship is a high and impractical expense, naval sources said. The ships of the national fleet are equipped with the Olympus and Tyne turbines produced by the British company Rolls Royce, identical to those fitted to the ships of the Royal Navy. It is a historical fact, some delays in the supply of spare parts of English origin, the retail sale from the conflict of 82. We learned the news of the Korean gift that there had been a quick move of another British supplier: Leafield Logistics & Technical Services, a company incorporated by Royal Navy retired engineers and technicians and specialized in the maintenance and recovery of turbine parts manufactured by Rolls Royce. They offered badistance and supply of spare parts obtained from deprogrammed English ships. Were they afraid of the entry of the competitor General Electric (GE) in the donation offered by Seoul?