(News Feature) SSVs primary mission is to help people displaced by calamities

From the Philippine News Agency (Jan 16): (News Feature) SSVs primary mission is to help people displaced by calamities

(PNA News Feature) --- Helping people displaced by natural or man-made disasters will be the primary mission of the country's first-ever strategic sealift vessels (SSVs).

The country's first SSV, which was ordered from PT PAL (Persero) in Surabaya, Indonesia, will be launched Sunday.

Launching is the removal of the ship from its building or dry-dock and first time placement in the water.

Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) spokesperson Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla said, "The motivation, behind our acquisition of this ship is our readiness to respond during moments of disaster, because the given scenarios in a year kind of revolved during times when we are hit by weather disturbances and hence, our preparedness to meet all these weather disturbances is a very important and critical role that we play as an Armed Forces and our Navy,"

And although the SSVs, also have some security use, its primary role was to transport relief goods and personnel to disaster affected areas aside from acting as mobile command centers for coordination of emergency operations, Padilla said.

From Surabaya, the vessel's various systems will be tested before turnover to the Philippines.

The first SSV will arrived by May while the second will be delivered on May 2017.

The Philippines has a two-SSV order with PT PAL (Persero) for Php 3.87 billion , which is sourced from the AFP Modernization Fund.

The SSV acquisition project for the PN was initiated upon the approval of Acquisition Decision Memorandum Number 2012-060 by Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin last Oct. 30, 2013.

The Department of National Defense declared Persero as the Single Calculated Responsive Bidder with a bidding price of Php3.87 billion on Nov. 18, 2014.

The SSVs are programmed to be the PN’s floating command center carrying out their main purpose as military sealift and transport vessels and also for humanitarian assistance and disaster response.

The ships are estimated to weigh around 7,300 gross register tons.

Further, these vessels are critical assets for civil-military operations due to their capability of transporting large number of soldiers, logistics, and supplies.

Moreover, each SSV has the capacity to house three helicopters. The Navy’s Augusta Westland-109s are programmed to be on-board components of these vessels.

These forthcoming landing platform dock strategic sealift vessels will improve the transport capability of the PN and boost the defense capabilities of the country.

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