Philippines awards tender for 2 new LPDs to Indonesian shipbuilder
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| 123m LPD submitted by PT PAL to Philippine Navy. Photo c/o PT PAL. |
The Philippines’ Department of National Defense (DND) was reported to have awarded a tender for the construction and delivery of two new Landing Platform Docks (LPD) for the Philippine Navy (PN) to Indonesian state-owned shipbuilder PT PAL (Persero).
A contract between the DND and PT PAL is expected to be signed within June 2022.
This was earlier reported by Filipino defense page MaxDefense Philippines, and confirmed by media outlet Philippine Daily Inquirer in its report dated 10 June 2022.
The new LPDs have been under public tender since 2019, but has encountered several bidding failures due to a variety of reasons.
According to Philippine Defense Resource, aside from PT PAL, other shipbuilders competing for the project includes South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI), India’s Larsen & Tourbro (L&T), and a joint venture of local shipbuilder Megaship Builders and Indonesian shipbuilder PT Batamec.
Other shipbuilders believed to have made offers to supply new LPDs to the Philippine Navy include Turkey’s ASFAT, Dutch shipbuilder Damen Group, and another European shipbuilder.
According to the technical requirements released by the DND, the LPDs are at least 120 meters long, has a maximum speed of at least 16 knots, a maximum displacement of at least 7,200 tons, powered by 2 diesel engines and has a maximum range of at least 9,000 nautical miles, and has a helicopter landing deck capacity for at least two 10-ton naval helicopters, and a hangar for one 10-ton helicopter.
The Philippine Navy currently has two Tarlac-class LPDs operational and were also built by PT PAL, although it has expressed to acquire more LPDs to replace World War 2-era landing ship tanks (LST) that are scheduled for decommissioning soon.
PT PAL previously released a design that it has offered to the Philippine Navy, which is 123 meters long and is said to be an improved version of the Tarlac-class, addressing design issues from the original ships.
[1] Inquirer.net
[3] Philippine Defense Resource
Reviewed by Asia Pacific Defense Journal
on
June 10, 2022
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