Riachuelo - (S22)
International Call Sign: Papa-Whiskey-Romeo-India
The Riachuelo (S-22) is a submarine-museum of the Brazilian Navy . It is the seventh ship of the Brazilian Navy to bear that name, in honor of the Naval Battle of Riachuelo (1865). Currently, the eighth vessel under the name of Riachuelo is under construction in the Naval Complex of Itaguaí , in the state of Rio de Janeiro .
Second in a series of three, it was built by the Vickers Limited shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness , Lancashire , England , in 1973. Its keel was laid on April 26, 1973, and was launched on September 6, 1973. After carrying out the sea trials, she was commissioned into the Brazilian Navy on March 12, 1977.
She participated in the following exercices: "Unitas XVIII" operations (October 1977); "Unitas XIX" (August 1978 ); "Unitas XXI" (August 1981 ), in conjunction with the US Navy ; operation "Atlantis" (May 1978), the Uruguayan Navy ; in an operation carried out with French Navy resources (November 1978); in the release experiments with torpedoes German " SUT " (November 1977) and English " Tigerfish " (November 1979).
She won the "Efficiency Trophy" in the year that this award was instituted by the Submarine Force Command .
The Riachuelo was the second submarine (the first in its class) to receive large-capacity batteries manufactured in the country by Saturnia , with German technology, installed during the ship's Normal Repair Period, in 1984.
After two decades of operations, she was discharged from active service on November 12, 1997 , after sailing more than 181 thousand nautical miles, in 1,283.5 days at sea and 17,699 hours and forty-one minutes of immersion.
Currently reclassified as Submarine-Museum, it is open to visitors at the Espaço Cultural da Marinha , in the historic center of the city of Rio de Janeiro.
