Puerto Belgrano Naval Base (Base Naval Puerto Belgrano)

Puerto Belgrano Naval Base (Base Naval Puerto Belgrano, BNPB) is the principal base of the Argentine Navy. It lies on the coast of Buenos Aires Province next to Punta Alta, near Bahía Blanca and some 560 km south of Buenos Aires, occupying about 122 hectares. The base takes its name from the brigantine General Belgrano, which surveyed the area in late 1824.

The base is the home port of the Sea Fleet (Flota de Mar) and concentrates the Navy's larger units and its arsenals. Homeported vessels include the MEKO 360H2-type destroyers ARA Almirante Brown, ARA La Argentina and ARA Sarandí, and the MEKO 140A16 corvettes of the Espora class. Auxiliary and amphibious units based there comprise the replenishment tanker ARA Patagonia, the transports ARA Canal Beagle and ARA Bahía San Blas, the ARA Puerto Argentino, ARA Estrecho de San Carlos and ARA Islas Malvinas, the ARA Teniente Olivieri and the ARA Punta Alta, together with a group of harbour and salvage tugs. The icebreaker ARA Almirante Irízar, assigned to the Antarctic Naval Command, also operates from Puerto Belgrano. In earlier periods the base docked the Rivadavia-class battleships ARA Rivadavia and ARA Moreno, and during the Cold War the aircraft carriers ARA Independencia and ARA Veinticinco de Mayo.

Facilities are grouped around the quays and dry docks and include a shipyard that carries out maintenance and refits of surface ships and submarines, specialised workshops and a naval hospital. Supporting infrastructure comprises six military schools at middle and tertiary level, public schools, seven residential neighbourhoods for naval personnel, a civil registry, a post office and the newsroom of the Navy magazine Gaceta Marinera. Rail access was established in 1911, when the Ferrocarril Rosario y Puerto Belgrano opened a 1.70 m broad-gauge line linking the base with Rosario. Two other Navy installations lie adjacent: the Marine Corps camp at Baterías and the naval aviation base Comandante Espora (BACE). Land within the naval reservation has been ceded to CONAE for the Centro Espacial Manuel Belgrano, a launch site selected for its existing Navy infrastructure, security arrangements, available area and suitability for polar-orbit launches.

The installation was designed by the Italian engineer Luis Luiggi and opened on 30 November 1896 as Puerto Militar, the site having been selected following surveys directed by Captain Félix Dufourq. It was renamed Puerto Belgrano in 1923. The base expanded in step with the growth of the fleet it supported.