The Brazilian Navy recently concluded a missile exercise in waters off Rio de Janeiro during which ships and aircraft of the navy sank the decommissioned frigate Bosísio.
Navy units took turns firing their armaments at the former Royal Navy Type 22 frigate until it sank.
A Brazilian Navy S-70B Seahawk hit the old frigate with a Kongsberg-built Penguin anti-ship missile while the BNS Rademaker, also a former Royal Navy frigate, hit the Bosísio with an Exocet missile.
The operation also achieved a first for the Brazilian Navy when the Seahawk helicopter was loaded with ordnance from a navy ship at sea for the first time.
After the Bosísio was hit with Exocet and Penguin missiles, AF-1B intercept and attack jets – which once flew from the Brazilian Navy sole aircraft carrier – dropped their 230-kg bombs while two Niterói-class frigates, BNS Liberal and BNS Independência, took the opportunity to hone skills with their 4.5-inch cannons.
The BNS Bosísio was a former Royal Navy Type 23 frigate (HMS Brazen) purchased by Brazil in November 1994 and commissioned into the Brazilian Navy in August 1996.
The Brazilian Navy decommissioned the frigate in September 2015.