South East Asia Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

Jeff Head said:

Yes, the US learned this lesson on the Stark in the 1980s...and now has forgotten it again with the LCS. I know they hope the speed will help, as well as stealth and EW...but still, a war ship has to assume it is at some point going to take some hits. It has to be designed to do so and not burn to the waterline if it does.

Here's a video of it:

[video=youtube;pk-SIKhM78w]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pk-SIKhM78w[/video]

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Short Circuit, Not Sabotage, Behind Indonesian Warship Fire
SP/Anastasia Winanti,SP/Nanda Aries & Markus Junianto Sihaloho | October 02, 2012

It was dubbed “one of the most innovative” warships ever, yet the Navy’s state-of-the-art KRI Klewang missile boat was destroyed by a fire seemingly sparked by the most mundane of factors: an electrical short circuit.

Admiral Agus Suhartono, the military chief of staff, played down speculation that the blaze that gutted the stealthy trimaran at the Banyuwangi Naval Base in East Java last Friday was an act of sabotage.

He said on Monday that it was a case of a “purely technical” problem with the electrical equipment on board the carbon-fiber boat that led to the short circuit and fire.

He added that the incident would serve as “valuable experience” for the producer, Banyuwangi-based Lundin Industry Invest, to ensure better build quality in its boats, including improving the integrity of the electrical installations to prevent fires.

The Rp 114 billion ($12 million) Klewang had just been delivered to the Navy’s Eastern Fleet on Aug. 31 and was docked at the naval base for maintenance when the fire broke out on Friday morning.

The boat was completely destroyed in the incident, while a maintenance worker and a Navy officer had to be hospitalized for smoke inhalation.

Lt. Col. Nadjib, the commander of the Banyuwangi base, said the boat had actually been scheduled to begin a month-long series of ocean trials later on Friday.

Nadjib and Lt. Col. Yayan Sugiana, the Eastern Fleet spokesman, both confirmed separately that the cause of the fire was an electrical short circuit, and that Lundin would be responsible for building a new boat for the Navy.

Lundin also issued a statement blaming a short circuit for the blaze.

Despite the official explanations, however, speculation remains that the fire might have been set deliberately in a sabotage attempt.

Mahfudz Siddiq, chairman of the House of Representatives Commission I, which oversees defense and foreign affairs, said on Monday that the timing of the incident was suspicious, given that the House was set to pass a bill on Tuesday on the domestic defense industry.

“The Klewang was one of our most sophisticated boat developments. Could this have been an attempt to tarnish the domestic defense industry? This is a suspicion that’s growing,” he said.

The Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) legislator also questioned the official finding, arguing that it was unlikely that such a technologically advanced piece of equipment could catch fire so easily.

“How likely is it that this boat could simply catch fire like a cheap boarding room? This is a sophisticated boat, and the scale of the fire was huge,” Mahfudz said.

At its launch at the end of August, Lundin hailed the Klewang as “one of the most innovative warships in the world.”

It said the boat “represents a significant step forward in the use of advanced warship building technologies in countries outside of Europe and the United States.”

It added that the use of carbon-fiber foam sandwich composites for all structural elements in the vessel “is unprecedented outside of Scandinavia and is representative of the current state of the art in both maritime composites structural engineering and production technology.”

According to the manufacturers, the boat features “stealth design with low detection signatures,” and can carry concealed missiles and guns as well as up to 29 soldiers and crew.

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no_name said:

Therefore while it is reasonable to have missile boats and corvettes and LCS and what not operating close to your own shore, designing an LCS to operate close to the shore of others AND away from your own is a bit beyond me.

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clone7803 said:

The Philipino armed force is the most obselete and weakest one in the ASEAN countries,there's no one of.And it seemed the Philipino armed force had a special interst in collecting the old and museum class junk weapons all over the world.

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ManilaBoy45 said:

I believe Brunei, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar which are all ASEAN nations have smaller and weaker armed forces ...

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ManilaBoy45 said:

I believe Brunei, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar which are all ASEAN nations have smaller and weaker armed forces ...

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The USS George Washington and the USS John C. Stennis aircraft carrier strike groups (CSGs), a flotilla of five ships and more than 10,000 Navy personnel are now operating in the conflict ridden South China Sea area. The news was announced by the Navy a few days ago, but is now making the rounds in Asian media outlets, and generating as much speculation as it is concern.

The Washington will be operating in the East China Sea near the disputed Diaoyutai islands controlled by Japan, but claimed by both Taiwan and China.

The Stennis will be operating south of the Diaoyutai's in the South China Sea, where territorial disputes between China and its regional neighbors have been making headlines for months. There is speculation that the carrier assignments could just be coincidence, and while that's possible it's just as likely that the U.S. is doing it's part to fulfill three separate treaty obligations to allies in the region.

Ralph Jennings at The Christian Science Monitor points out that the U.S. is "obligated by security pacts or acts of Congress to help defend Japan, Taiwan, and the Philippines – all located off the east coast of rising military power and US cold-war rival China."

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