The class was named after Juan Bautista Azopardo, an Argentine naval officer in the Independence and Cisplatine wars.

[citation needed] The class was as part of a program to build four mine warfare ships during the Second World War, of which two (Murature and King) were completed as patrol ships in the 1940s and the others (Piedrabuena and Azopardo) as antisubmarine frigates in the 1950s.

[1] The Azopardo class frigates had a metal hull with a single mast and funnel.

They were powered by two Parsons steam turbines fed by two water-tube boilers, driving two propellers.

[2][1] Azopardo and Piedra Buena were incorporated in the High Seas Fleet ((in Spanish) Flota de Mar), and frequently used to patrol the Argentine Sea and in training exercises, including the multinational “UNITAS”.