Sea trials for the Philippine Navy (PN)'s first strategic
sealift vessel (SSV) has been successfully concluded.
This was announced by PN spokesperson Capt. Lued Lincuna in
a a message to PNA Wednesday morning.
"Sea trials were successfully concluded, tentative
arrival of our first SSV is next week. We are still planning for her arrival
ceremonies," he added.
Sea trials refer to the testing phases which aims to check
the performance of all machineries and equipment of the SSV.
"It is also conducted to check and measure the ship's
general performance and seaworthiness," he added.
The Philippines
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 PHP3,870,000,000 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.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=884207
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.