With the arrival of the two Gregorio Del Pilar class frigates, the Philippine Navy (PN) has required its heavy weather patrol capability which was lost with the decommissioning of the four Andres Bonifacio class frigates some 30 years ago.
These ships were retired during the late 1980s and early 1990s, Cmdr. Gregory Fabic, PN public affairs office chief, said.
Heavy weather patrol capability means that these ships are capable of carrying on their missions even in rough sea conditions.
Fabic also said that the Andres Bonifacio class is a ship class of four frigates that served with the Philippine Navy from 1976 to the mid-1990s.
These ships were formerly used by the US Navy as Barnegat-class small seaplane tenders and by the US Coast Guard as Casco class weather heavy endurance cutters.
These vessels were formerly operated by
They landed in Philippine services after their officers and crew fled to Subic Bay, Zambales in April 1975 as their government was then collapsing under the attacks of communist
While in PN service, the four vessels have undergone upgrades and modification, and were categorized as frigates.
During their time, they were considered as the largest PN surface combatants.
"With the arrival of our two Gregorio Del Pilar class frigates, the PN has regained its capability to patrol our territorial waters even during rough weather," Fabic said in Filipino.p>Both ships are former Hamilton-class cutters serving the US Coast Guard.
The BRP Gregorio Del Pilar (PF-15), the lead ship of the class, was commissioned in December 2011 while the BRP Ramoon Alcaraz (PF-16) was activated in November 2013.
The two frigates are now the largest combatants of the Philippine Navy and are the mother ships of the AgustaWestland AW-109E "Power" helicopters commissioned last December 2013.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=665678
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