The Bangladesh Navy commissioned five new vessels – including two frigates, one corvette, and two survey ships – with a ceremony held at its naval facilities in the port city of Chattogram on 5th November.
Chief of Naval Staff Admiral M Shaheen Iqbal formally handed over the “commissioning forman (statement)” of the ships to the respective captains at the ceremony.
Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina has attended the ceremony. “We have always wanted not only to protect our maritime borders, but also to use our sea resources for our economic development.” We have to work for it. In this case we have taken this idea of Blue Economy and are working on it. It is our goal to exploit the resources that we have in this ocean, and we are working towards that goal.” she said during the ceremony.
Among the ships entering service that day were the frigates BNS Umer Farroq – also spelled Umar Farooq – (with pennant number F 16) and BNS Abu Ubaidah (F 19); the Shadhinota (Type C13B)-class corvette BNS Prottasha (F 114); and survey ships BNS Darshak and BNS Tallashi , according to a statement by Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media wing of the Bangladeshi military.
An audio-visual presentation was made on the five ships that included two frigates BNS Umar Farooq and BNS Abu Ubaidah, one corvette BNS Prottasha and two survey ships BNS Darshak and BNS Tallashi.
China had handed over the two Type 053H3 (Jiangwei II)-class frigates to the BN in December 2019 following an overhaul. The 112 m-long vessels, which can reach a top speed of 24 n miles, were previously in service with the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) where they were known as Jiaxing and Lianyungang.
The primary armament on the ships comprises a twin-barrelled Type 79A (H/PJ-33A) 100 mm gun, YJ-83K anti-ship missiles fired from slant-mounted containerised launchers, an octuple launcher for HHQ-7 short-range surface-to-air missiles (SAMs), and two H/PJ-12 (Type 730A) seven-barrelled 30 mm close-in weapon systems.