Taipei, July 20 (CNA) Republic of China President Chen Shui-bian is scheduled to preside over the commissioning ceremony of an Anchorage-class dock landing ship and three Chinchiang-class patrol missile boats on Friday at southern Taiwan's Tsoying Naval Base.
Leased from the United States, the 30-year-old dock landing ship (LSD), renamed Hsuhai, has completed post-transfer overhauls and combat readiness training and will replace the 50-year-old LSD Chungcheng.
The ceremony will feature an aboriginal welcoming dance performed by villagers from the Pingtung County village of Hsuhai -- namesake of the LSD. The Hsuhai will also carry several battalions of ROC marines and landing craft in a small-scale exercise to showcase its large troop transport capacity.
According to the ROC Navy General Headquarters, three Chinchiang-class large missile boats -- Pochiang, Changchiang, and Chuchiang -- were originally to be commissioned in a separate ceremony, but the navy decided to combine the two events in a grand ceremony in which navy officers will also swear their loyalty to the president.
The locally made Chinchiang-class missile boats will be charged with patrolling Taiwan coastal waters and ports and conducting escort duty during resupply missions to Taiwan's outlying islands. Armed with four indigenous Hsiung Feng I surface-to-surface missiles each, they will monitor the activities of mainland Chinese vessels and take part in defending Taiwan's sea superiority in coastal waters.
The Hsuhai will join the navy's Newport-class landing ships Chungho and Chungping to form a high-speed amphibious flotilla for rapid response missions. It can also take part in military or civilian transport missions involving heavy equipment and materiel.
The Hsuhai is one of just five vessels of its class, which is still in active service in the US Navy. It is 170 meters long and 25 meters wide with a full displacement tonnage of 13,680 tons. It was constructed by General Dynamics at their Quincy, Massachusetts, facility and was commissioned by the US Navy in 1971.
The LSD has a maximum speed of 22 knots and can sail for 14,800 nautical miles without refueling. Armed with two Phalanx Close-In Weapons Systems for air defense, it can accommodate 360 fully equipped infantrymen in addition to light landing ships and amphibious tanks with its 15,800 square feet of cargo capacity.
The Hsuhai is the first of two Anchorage-class LSD's that the ROC Navy has leased from the United States through the foreign military sales program. The only other decommissioned US vessel in its class is the USS Fort Fisher (LSD-40), currently berthed in Benecia, California, according to the US Navy's Naval Vessel Register. (By Fang Wen-hung)
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