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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