⚓Military and defence· 2026

After Cardama: €60 million for three second-hand patrol ships

With no new vessels and almost €29 million paid to a shipyard that never delivered, the government offered €60 million for three British patrol ships built between 2001 and 2003.

Under wayQuestioned management

Figure published by the sources

60 millones de euros por tres OPV clase River usadas, unos 20 millones cada una

Bodies involved

Ministerio de Defensa Nacional · Armada Nacional

What it is

With the Cardama contract terminated, the government opened a search for replacements. On 24 February 2026 President Yamandú Orsi said "at least" five proposals had already arrived and that the goal is to have the vessels before the administration ends in 2030, according to Infobae. The British option advanced furthest: three River Batch 1 ocean patrol vessels — HMS Tyne, HMS Mersey and HMS Severn — built between 2001 and 2003 and becoming available in 2028. On 1 June 2026 Presidency deputy secretary Jorge Díaz confirmed to Teledoce that Uruguay would submit a formal note to the British embassy that week offering €60 million, about €20 million per unit, according to MercoPress.

What is questioned

The government itself acknowledges the cheap option carries a technical cost. According to Ámbito (31 March 2026), the Navy warned that the three River Batch 1 vessels have no hangar or flight deck to operate embarked helicopters, a capability it regarded as an "excluding requirement", and that without a helicopter the ships cannot fulfil their role of patrolling the exclusive economic zone. They are 1,770-tonne units, 79.5 metres long, with a top speed of 20 knots and a 20 mm gun. Díaz said they have 20 to 25 years of useful life left, according to MercoPress. Announcing the offers, Orsi set the limit: price is one criterion among several and past mistakes cannot be repeated by buying cheap, according to Infobae, which added that Parliament set up an investigative committee into the whole earlier procurement.

Why it matters to you

This is the second time in three years Uruguay has tried to equip its Navy with patrol vessels, and this time the argument is between paying more for new ships or less for ships over two decades old that, by the Navy's own account, fail the requirement it had itself declared excluding. Meanwhile, according to Ámbito, the fleet is down to two 1960s ex-minesweepers. How fishing in Uruguayan waters is policed for the next twenty years depends on that call.

Where it stands

Under way

As this file closes (August 2026) the purchase is not settled. The last verified development is the announcement of the formal note to the British embassy, reported on 1 June 2026 by MercoPress; the vessels would only be free in 2028 and other proposals, including new builds, remain under evaluation. No later developments are on record.

The open-data cross-reference

Open this set in the explorer

What the state awarded to the bodies and companies named in this file, according to the official Compras Estatales data. It is a cross-reference for scale, not proof of irregularity: it includes contracts nobody questioned.

How this cross-reference was builteverything recorded under 13 buying units of the named bodies (not only this case) · between 2026 and 2026

$ 2.632.885.623 Awarded (cross-ref)

2.319Contracts

1.136Suppliers

Who was paid

Suppliers ranked by amount awarded in the cross-reference. A contract with several suppliers counts in full against each one: this is a ceiling, not a split.

Which body paid

What it bought

Spending by category, from price times quantity of each awarded item, in the contract currency.

The detail

30 contracts

The largest contracts in the cross-reference, high to low. Tap one for its record and the link to the official purchase.

Amounts in pesos, normalised. Records with impossible quantities are excluded from the total. Buying ships from a foreign State is handled through an intergovernmental agreement, not a tender in Compras Estatales, so it should not show up in the open-data feed. Related spare parts, fuel and maintenance will appear there later.