BRP Rajah Humabon
Posted on 06/18/2011 6:34:06 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Manila to send World War II warship into disputed area
04:47 AM Jun 18, 2011
MANILA - With tensions rising over territorial disputes in the South China Sea, the Philippines said yesterday it will send its biggest warship, a World War II vessel, to the area after China deployed one of its largest civilian maritime patrol ships.
Philippine President Benigno Aquino III also said his government will continue to seek dialogue but insisted his country will not be bullied by China.
"We will not be pushed around because we are a tiny state compared with theirs," Mr Aquino said. "We think we have very solid grounds to say 'do not intrude into our territory'."
The Philippine warship, BRP Rajah Humabon (picture), once used by the United States against German submarines, will patrol around Scarborough Shoal near the Spratly Islands, according to reports.
At 306 feet, it is smaller than the 367-foot Haixun-31 patrol vessel sent by China on Wednesday.
Philippine defence department spokesman Eduardo Batac, however, played down any connection with China's deployment - saying it was just "part of routine patrols that are being conducted by the Navy".
"The Navy conducts regular offshore patrols and we should not connect the deployment of Rajah Humabon to the deployment of this maritime vessel of China," he said.
The Philippines, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have competing claims in the South China Sea, which is believed to hold vast oil and gas reserves.
But China's claim is by far the largest, forming a large U-shape over most of the sea's 1.7 million sq km area, including the Spratly and Paracel archipelagos.
Tensions have been rising in recent months over the overlapping territorial claims.
The Vietnam Navy conducted live-fire exercises on Monday after accusing Chinese boats of disrupting oil and gas exploration in its waters.
Vietnam's Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has also issued a decree about a potential military call-up if war broke out.
Meanwhile, apart from deploying a patrol vessel, China said it will boost its coastal forces.
The expansion of the China Maritime Surveillance (CMS) forces, a paramilitary law enforcement agency that patrols China's territorial waters, shows Beijing's resolve to protect its "maritime rights and sovereignty" which it says have been increasingly violated.
The personnel in the CMS will rise to 15,000 by 2020 from 9,000 now while the number of its surveillance vessels will increase from 260 to 350 by 2015, the China Daily reported.
China also said its maritime defence forces recently staged three days and nights of exercises in the South China Sea.
The drills involved a total of 14 patrol boats, landing craft and submarine hunting boats, along with two military aircraft, the People's Daily newspaper said.
It said the exercises were aimed at refining anti-submarine, replenishment and island defence capabilities in order to better respond to any future sudden crisis. Agencies
BRP Rajah Humabon
They need to update their navy big time.
Sea Shepherd has a bigger badder navy.
Looks like an old destroyer escort.Those things were never designed to last this long,they were built quick and cheap.
Pula listo!
Want to know more about the technology that drives the Philippine Navy? Technograph recently spoke to a couple of officers from the armed service. What emerged was a picture of hilariously deplorable conditions.
BRP stands for Barko ng Republika ng Pilipinas or Ship of the Republic of the Philippines in English
As related by our sources, the flagship of the Philippine Navy is the BRP Rajah Humabon (PF-11), an escort destroyer of the Cannon class (pictured above) that was commissioned in the US way back in 1943. A visiting American naval officer actually said that her sister ship was already on display in a museum! Obviously, the Rajah Humabon’s technology was state-of-the-art during World War II. Now however, our seamen have to participate in naval exercises where they have to rely on manual fire control, compared to the computer-driven mechanisms of their American and Malaysian counterparts.
Hueybravo.net has more information on the BRP Rajah Humabon, and its history as the USS Atherton and JMSDF Hatsushi.
On said gunnery exercise, firing the guns would actually rattle the rust off the bulkheads. And in one particularly notable case, caused both electric generators of the ship to fail, leading to a blackout. Modern amenities are available, such as air-conditioning. The problem is that the luxury only reaches certain parts of the ship, and has a faulty control system. One of the officers had to sleep in a room that was frosting from the extreme cold. On another ship, the budget for food is a mere Php 40 ($1) per head for all three meals. Most alarming was the story that sailing through a typhoon was a “near-death experience.”
http://technogra.ph/2008/02/29/the-technology-of-the-philippine-navy/
You are right.
She begain life the USS Atherton (DE-169) in 1943, she was mostly assigned at the Atlantic theatre doing patrols and anti-submarine missions. She was credited of having destroyed a German U-boat, the U-853, in 9 May 1945. She served in the Pacific theatre in the middle of 1945 until she was decommissioned and put on reserves on 10 December 1945. With her service during World War II, she was awarded with one battle star.
Why do I get the feeling the leadership in Manila is displaying guts against China because there’s any number of treaties we signed with them ensuring we will come to their defense in war time? Must be nice to show courage when the US will be picking up the tab.
Looks like it has been upgraded with Direct TV and the depth charges have been taken off.
I bet the sight of that thing will put the fear of God in the Chinese. Especially when the Chinese have to tow it back to Manila for them.
Sending a WWII era vessel into a modern hostile area did not work out too well for the Argentinian Navy circa 1982 when they sent the Admiral Belgramo, a relic WWII US cruiser, to the Falklin Island crusade. I suspect this ship would have similar results in any battle with a modern navy.
?
The World War II Destroyer Escort Slater (DE 766) is berthed as a Destroyer Escort Historical Museum
in Albany NY. After WW II it was given to the Greeks who transferred it back in 1991.
Don’t think I would want to confront the CHiComs with a DE from WW II.
I don’t think that those old 3”/50cals would be of much use...
I don’t seen the torpedoes, either. Those 3 inch guns will really scare the PLAN
Gosh, must be some value to a US defensive umbrella after all. If we’re going to continue protecting other nation’s sovereignty, they should be paying into an “insurance” pool.
Other than that, ‘eff ‘em, they don’t like us much anyway.
On second thought, nevermind; let ‘em learn to speak Mandarin.
The 378 footer USCGC Hamilton homeported in Alameda California just last week was decommissioned and given to the Phillipines, FYI.
Re the USS Atherton..getting a U-boat on 9 May 1945..was that the last one sunk in the war?
They took the sails down for the photo.
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