Monday, January 18, 2016

Ranking PHL defense, military officials present in SSV launching ceremonies

From the Philippine News Agency (Jan 18): Ranking PHL defense, military officials present in SSV launching ceremonies

Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin and Philippine Navy (PN) flag-officer-in-command Vice Admiral Caesar Taccad graced the launching ceremonies of the country's first strategic sealift vessel (SSV) Sunday.

The event was held at the PT PAL (Persero) shipyard in Surabaya, Indonesia.

PN public affairs office chief Cmdr. Lued Lincuna said the SSV, which was designated "Landing Dock (LD)-601" was unveiled by Jocelyn Taccad, wife of the Navy chief.

LD-601 is expected to be delivered in May.

Likewise, the ceremony marked the keel-laying or the formal start of construction of the second SSV (LD-602) which is expected to be completed by 2017.

The SSV project was initiated upon the approval of acquisition decision memorandum Number 2012-060 by the Secretary of National Defense last October 30, 2013.

It is a two-unit SSV procurement project with an approved budget contract of PHP4 billion sourced from the AFP Modernization Act Trust Fund.

The Department of National Defense declared PT PAL (Persero) as the single calculated responsive bidder with a bidding price of PHP3.8 billion on November 18, 2014.

The SSVs are programmed to be the PN’s floating command-and-control ships especially in the conduct of humanitarian assistance and disaster response missions and serving other purposes as military sealift and transport vessels.

These vessels are also 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.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=847847

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