Philippine Navy's first Jose-Rizal class frigate leaves South Korea

The Philippine Navy’s (PN’s) future BRP José Rizal multirole frigate left the facilities of South Korean shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) in the southeastern coastal city of Ulsan on 18 May en route for the Philippines, according to a statement by the Republic of Korea Navy (RoKN).

The 107.5 m long frigate, which was launched on 23 May 2019 and is the first of two warships of the class built by HHI, is expected to arrive in the Philippine province of Zambales five days later – on the first anniversary of the ship’s launch – after which an official acceptance ceremony is set to be held.

In recent months the frigate (with pennant number 150) conducted a series of sea trials, including replenishment trials off the coast of South Korea with the Royal New Zealand Navy’s future fleet tanker/replenishment vessel HMNZS Aotearoa, which was also built by HHI.

The second frigate of the class, which will be known as BPR Antonio Luna (pennant number 151) once commissioned, entered the water at HHI’s facilities in Ulsan on 8 November. It has been scheduled for delivery to the PN between September and October 2020, but it is unclear whether the handover will be delayed due to the impact of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic.

The ships are derivatives of the HDF-3000 frigate design, which is a smaller version of the Incheon (FFX-1) frigate class operated by the RoKN.

Both vessels were ordered by Manila under a PHP16 billion (USD315 million) contract awarded to HHI in 2016, with an additional PHP2 billion set aside for weapon systems and munitions, according to the state-owned Philippine News Agency (PNA).