INDONESIA’S state-owned shipbuilder has started to build the second of two strategic sealift vessels for the Philippine Navy.
A report from Indonesia’s Antara News last June 5 said the keel-laying of the second ship by shipbuilder PT PAL was held recently at the Surabaya shipyard.
The keel-laying is a traditional ceremony designed to inaugurate the construction of shipbuilding.
“What we are doing now has reached 25%, and for the import of equipment that we need the existing 80%. Hopefully the process will be timely and on November 2015 we will launch,” he said in Surabaya, East Java,” Firmansyah Arifin, director of PT PAL Indonesia said in the report.
The keel-laying was attended by Navy Vice Commander Rear Admiral Caesar Taccad and Philippine Fleet Commander Rear Admiral Leopoldo Alano, said Navy public affairs office chief Cmdr. Lued Lincuna.
The delivery of the first vessel is scheduled on May 2016. The second is scheduled to arrive the following year.
The ships are worth P3.87 billion. The vessel is designed with a length of 123 meters, a width of 21.8 meters and is capable of transporting 500 troops and a weight of up to 10,300 tons, which can go for 30 days at a distance of 9,360 sea mill with a maximum speed of 16 knots.
The vessel is also capable of carrying two helicopters, and a transport vessel “landing craft utility” and tanks to military trucks. AC