The country's first strategic-sealift vessel (SSV) will be
delivered to the Philippine Navy (PN) in May 2016, a military official
confirmed on Monday.
"The ship is now 87 percent complete and will be
launched this coming January (2016). The SSV will be delivered sometime this
May," Navy spokesperson Col. Edgard Arevalo said at the sidelines of the
Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) 80th founding anniversary Monday.
Eight seven percent completion means the ship's keel,
propulsion, engine and other major systems are now installed.
The second SSV, which is now 46 percent complete, will be
delivered in 2017, Arevalo added.
When asked if the SSVs are to be armed, Arevalo said
defensive armament of the ships will be installed by the PN.
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 PHP3.87 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.
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=840162
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