Spanish Navy frigate ESPS Cristóbal Colón (F-105) returned home to Naval Base Ferrol, Spain, on August 10 after spending three month in Australia where the ship’s crew helped prepare Australian sailors to operate the Aegis combat system.
Just the like the future HMAS Hobart, the first of three new air warfare destroyers the Australian Navy is receiving, ESPS Cristóbal Colón features the Lockheed Martin-built combat system.
The Australian destroyers are based on the Navantia-designed F-100 frigate and share significant platform similarities with Cristobal Colon.
While in Australian waters, the F-105 took part in several national and international exercises, embarking up to 12 rotating crews of the future Hobart-class AWD destroyers.
During the transits to and from Australia, Cristóbal Colón provided support to different ongoing international operations like Sea Guardian and Sophia in the Mediterranean, the counter-piracy operation Atalanta in the Indian Ocean and exercise UNITAS in the Pacific Ocean with other Latin-American navies.
The deployment lasted 214 days, 162 of which were days at sea sailing a total of 40,000 miles.