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Warship ablaze, but none injured
A Navy anti-submarine warship caught fire during a routine patrol in the waters off Lampung with all personnel on board surviving the accident
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A Navy anti-submarine warship caught fire during a routine patrol in the waters off Lampung with all personnel on board surviving the accident.
Navy spokesperson First Adm. Iskandar Sitompul said Tuesday the warship KRI Memet Sastrawiria, commanded by Maj. Gema Eka Putra, was heading to Labuhan Siging port when fire gutted the port side of its stern.
"We are still investigating the cause of the fire. More importantly, everybody is safe," Iskandar said.
The warship is a Parchim class corvette once operated by East Germany. Indonesia bought the corvette as part of the 1985 purchase of 39 East German warships.
Measuring 75.2 meters in length and 9.8 in width, the corvette is armed with an anti-submarine rocket launcher, torpedoes and sea mines. It can cruise at a maximum of 24.7 knots.
Another warship, KRI Teluk Cirebon, was forced to dock at Labuhan Siging on Monday after a leak was found in its seawater tank. The ship was sailing back to Jakarta from a civic mission in Muko-muko regency in Bengkulu. Iskandar said bad weather and high tides were to blame for the problem.
The warship was carrying 174 personnel who had just provided free medical services to local people in the Bengkulu regency Aug. 11-16.
"It was not stranded. There was a small leak found after a storm. Everything is okay now and the ship is en route to Jakarta," Iskandar said.
KRI Teluk Cirebon is a landing ship for Marine troops and a logistics carrier. It was part of another group purchase of former East German warships in 1995.
The Indonesian Navy operates 122 warships, 37 of which have been operating for 50 years or longer.
The government has proposed Rp 35 trillion in the defense budget for 2009, down from Rp 36.9 trillion allocated for this year. Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono said the reduction would disrupt the defensive operations of the Indonesian Military, which he said needed at least Rp 100 trillion to maintain the country's territorial integrity.
