ZAMBOANGA CITY, 14 October 2005 — An Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) spokesman has said the US Navy ship seen sneaking into southern Philippine waters early this week was part of the campaign to flush out terrorist groups in the country.
“There is nothing to worry about the US ship. It will take part in the exercise called Balikatan,” Lt. Col. Buenaventura Pascual told Arab News late on Wednesday.
He was referring to the new joint Philippine-US anti-terror exercise dubbed as Balikatan (shoulder-to-shoulder) off the southern Philippines.
Buenaventura said the 11,000-ton, 321-foot HSV-2 Swift is transporting equipment to be used in a humanitarian mission. He did not elaborate.
The catamaran-hulled HSV 2 Swift and a smaller gunboat were spotted on Tuesday off Zamboanga City near Basilan Island. They were heading toward the Moro Gulf.
The United States Embassy in Manila has confirmed the presence of two US warships — the USS Stockholm and the HSV — in international waters near the southern Philippines.
Lt. Col. Jacquelin Lyons, an embassy and information officer of the Joint United States Assistance Group (Jusmag), said one of the ship is scheduled for a routine port visit in a week or so in Basilan or Zamboanga to load equipment.
She said the USS Stockholm belongs to the US Seventh Fleet, and the smaller high-speed vessel is used to transport personnel and equipment.
Lyons stressed there is no way the two ships were going to dock in a Philippine port or even enter Philippine territory right now, because Manila has not given any clearance for any US warship to do so.
“The ships would not enter the Philippine territory without permission from the government,” Lyons said.
She said it is doubtful the USS Stockholm would dock in Basilan or Zamboanga because it was too big for either port.
The Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman, Gilberto Asuque, said he spoke with US Embassy officials who made no mention about a US warship in Mindanao.
Under the Visiting Forces Agreement, Asuque said the embassy is also supposed to make an announcement if a warship will enter the country, including the posting of the vessel’s picture. The USS Stockholm last docked in Subic Bay in October 2004.
New in US Navy
The HSV 2 Swift, the newest addition in the US Navy and is used to transport personnel and equipment, is faster than most ships with a top speed of almost 50 knots. The catamaran hulls draw only about 11 feet of water, making the ship ideal for missions in shallow coastal waters.
According to the US Navy News Service, the HSV 2 Swift is currently under navy-army joint testing as the next platform for military operations in a littoral environment — operations conducted very near the coast or shoreline.
In the past, the military has relied mostly on airlift and sealift to deploy troops and equipment. Ocean travel has meant slow, deep-draft vessels. However, the HSV 2 Swift has a lightweight aluminum hull, which makes it fast and agile. It can even maneuver right up to the shoreline.
The HSV 2 Swift is currently operating as an interim Mine Warfare Command and Support Ship. “It’s undergoing testing for mine countermeasures and as a sea-basing platform. The Swift is also being looked at for other transformational modular mission payload initiatives,” NNS said.
The craft is also fitted with a load-compensating crane that can launch and recover small boats and unmanned vehicles of up to 26,000 pounds while under way. A variety of helicopters can use its flight deck.
But what makes the HSV 2 Swift unique is the vessel’s high speed, shallow drafts, versatility and maneuverability. It is propelled by four jet-propulsion diesel engines, together producing about 40,000 horsepower.
The HSV 2 Swift’s self-defense mechanism includes seven crew-served 25-50 mm machine guns, and a grenade machine gun.
The ship served in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom as a logistics base and a staging platform for Navy-Marine SEAL teams operating off of Umm Qasr, Iraq where the HSV 2 Swift tested its mine-warfare capabilities, according NNS.
Jemaah Islamiyah
The US is helping the Philippine military fight terrorism in the troubled region, where two Jemaah Islamiya bomb makers Dulmatin and Umar Patek, who masterminded the 2002 Bali bombings, are believed to be hiding or in the company of Abu Sayyaf terrorists.
Washington offered as much as $11 million for the capture of Dulmatin, a Malaysian electronic expert, and Umar Patek, an Indonesian, who helped assembled the bombs that were used in the Bali attacks that killed more than 200 mostly holiday-makers.
Last week, a group of US and Filipino soldiers held a medical mission in the town of Barira in the southern Muslim province of Maguindanao. Some 1,000 people were given free medical services under the joint Medical Civic Action Program (Medcap), which is part of the Project Bayanihan that enabled US and RP soldiers to work together to improve the well being of Filipino communities.
