Singapore navy gets homemade warships

Singapore navy gets homemade warships

SINGAPORE (Reuter): Singapore's navy yesterday launched the
first of 12 warships that have been designed and are being built
locally.

The new class of 55-metre (180-foot) patrol vessels will
replace 12 smaller and less well-equipped coastal patrol craft
the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) has operated since the early
1980s, Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said.

Speaking at the launch of the RSS Fearless, the first of the
500-ton warships to hit the water, Lee said that unlike other
countries in the region, the small island state did not need a
large navy.

"But we still need to defend Singapore from the seaward
threats. This is the key mission of the RSN," he said.

Lee said Singapore was critically dependent on free and
unimpeded access to sea lanes through which most its trade and
vital supplies like food and fuel flow.

"The RSN has to safeguard these sea lines of communications,
and be ready to keep them open during any crisis," he said.

The new ships, designed by the Singapore Defense Ministry's
Defense Technology Group, are being built locally by Singapore
Shipbuilding and Engineering, a member of the Singapore
Technologies group of companies.

The contract, the terms of which have not been disclosed, was
awarded two years ago.

"We buy new assets only when upgrading is no longer
economically or operationally feasible, or to develop critical
new operational capabilities," Lee said, adding that replaced
ships would be redeployed to the Police Coast Guard.

Lee said all the new ships, to be delivered by 1997, would be
equipped with advanced communications and electronic warfare
equipment. Each will be armed with a 76mm main gun and
surface-to-air missiles.

Six of the new ships, to be delivered between this month and
late-1996, will also be fitted with hull-mounted anti-submarine
sensors and torpedoes.

These ships will be fitted with waterjet propulsion, the first
of its kind in the region for ships of similar size.

The RSN was started in 1967 with two wooden training ships.
Lee said the navy had over the years steadily developed into "a
compact but balanced and significant fighting force".

He said the navy's current fleet included missile corvettes,
upgraded missile gunboats and minehunters. He gave no figures.

Singapore, with a population of three million, has total armed
forces of 300,000 regulars, full-time national servicemen and
reservists.