Five old warships to see end of their days
Indra Harsaputra, Surabaya
Five of the 66 warships serving the Navy's Eastern Indonesia Fleet will be turned into scrap metal due to old age, said a high-ranking Navy official recently.
The warships, some of which saw action during World War II, were aged between 40 and 60 years old, and would be decommissioned, said Rear Admiral Sosialisman, the chief of Navy's Eastern Indonesia Fleet.
Sosialisman said that four of the five vessels would be auctioned off to the public and the revenue would be handed over to the state. The procedure for the auction is still being discussed by Navy officials. The four warships are the Jayawijaya, the Samadikun, the Monginsidi and the Hasanuddin.
"They are already old and no longer seaworthy," said Sosialisman, after attending a ceremony to officially decommission the old warriors.
Another ship, the Rakata will still be used -- for target practice -- at a training center for Navy cadets.
The five warships were made in the U.S., and had different functions.
The Jayawijaya entered service here in September 1971, and functioned as an escort/repair ship. It was manufactured in 1942, at the height of World War II by Chicago Bridge and Iron Co. Ship Building Division in Seneca, Illinois.
The Samadikun and Monginsidi were destroyer escorts. They were built in 1957.
The Hasanuddin, built in 1962 was a frigate that, in its heyday, had sophisticated anti-submarine and anti-air defense technology systems. It was later given to the Indonesian Navy on April 3, 1986.
The Navy would not make public further information on the Rakata.
The decommissioning followed a series of complaints by chief of Navy Admiral Bernard Kent Sondakh that the Navy's ships and equipment were woefully obsolete. The Navy has proposed to the government and the Indonesian military (TNI) headquarters an increase in the Navy budget to replace old equipment with newer ones, in order to boost the capability of the Navy to safeguard the vast archipelago.
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Warship names before handing over to Indonesian Navy ================================================================ 1. Jayawijaya not available 2. Samadikun USS John R. Ferry 3. Monginsidi USS Claude Jones 4. Hasanuddin HMS Tartar 5. Rakata USS Minomine ================================================================ Source: Indonesian Navy Eastern Fleet