Downtown Africa
The Nigerian Navy (NN) has launched a new Landing Ship Tank (LST) to replace a set of its decommissioned LSTs. The new ship was constructed at Damen Shipyard, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, where its launching also took place.
It is expected that the new LST will bolster the Navy’s sealift capability by enhancing the troop transportation, military hardware, vehicles launched from sea during maritime security operations, and supply of relief material in times of national emergencies. The new ship will also provide enhanced maritime security in the Gulf of Guinea. Additionally, it will contribute to promotion of global maritime commerce, peace and safety by helping to protect maritime assets and preserve law and order at sea.
The ship is powered by 2 Caterpillar/Cat 3516 C-rating engines and 4 Caterpillar C-18 generators and has capacity for 32 crew and 250 embarked persons and a length of 100.08m. The ships endurance is 15 days @ 15 knots and can accommodate over 450 persons on its upper and lower decks in short trips during humanitarian missions/evacuations.
In December 2017, the procurement bid process for the ship was conducted by a combined team from Nigeria’s Bureau of Public Procurement and naval technical committee. The Shipbuilding companies that participated were Damen Shipyards of the Netherlands, Anadolu Deniz of Turkey and Indian Shipyards GOA of India. Although bids were received from shipbuilding companies from the Netherlands, Turkey, and India, Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding (DSNS) of the Netherlands eventually won the contract in June 2019. Damen operates more than 50 shipbuilding and repair yards and is one of the biggest shipbuilding groups in the world, including a shipbuilding yard in South Africa and a maintenance yard in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. The construction is at the Damen-Albwardi Shipbuilding Yard in Sharjar in the UAE.
This article was adapted from the Nation Newspaper in Nigeria. You can start earning money by becoming our Independent Reporter or Contributor. Contact us at IR@downtownafrica.com
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