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BRP Ladislao Diwa (PS-178)

BRP Ladislao Diwa (PS-178) during its commissioning with the Philippine Navy.
History
United States of America
Name	USS Chinook
Builder	Bollinger Shipyards, Lockport, Louisiana[2]
Laid down	16 June 1993
Launched	26 February 1994
Acquired	7 October 1994
Commissioned	28 January 1995
Recommissioned	22 August 2008
Decommissioned	28 March 2023[1]
Identification	PC-9
Motto	"Stealth Courage Swiftness"
Fate	Transferred to Philippine Navy[1]
Badge
Philippines
Name	BRP Ladislao Diwa
Namesake	Ladislao Diwa, Filipino revolutionary and co-founder of Katipunan
Acquired	28 March 2023
Commissioned	11 September 2023[3]
Identification	PS-178
Status	In service
Badge
General characteristics
Class and type	Alvarez-class patrol ship
Displacement	331 tons
Length	174 ft (53 m)
Beam	25 ft (7.6 m)
Draft	7.5 ft (2.3 m)
Installed power	2 × MTU 6V396 TC52 diesel generators
Propulsion	4 × Paxman Valenta 16RP200CM diesel engines producing combined total of 13,400 shp (9,990 kW) sustained [2]
Speed	35 knots (65 km/h) maximum
Range	2,900 mi (2,500 nmi; 4,700 km)at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Endurance	10 days
Boats & landing craft carried	1 × 7-meter RHIB
Crew	4 officers, 24 men, 8 Special Forces
Sensors and processing systems	AN/SPS-64(V)9 I-band Surface Search Radar Sperry Vision RASCAR 2100M Combat System Sperry Vision RASCAR 3400C X-band Navigation/Surface Search Radar Sperry Vision RASCAR 3400C S-band Navigation/Surface Search Radar Wesmar side-scanning hull-mounted Sonar FLIR Systems AN/KAX-1 MarFLIR
Electronic warfare & decoys	Privateer AN/APR-39(V)1 ESM radar warning 2 × Mk.52 Mod.0 sextuple Chaff Launchers
Armament	2 × Mk.38 Mod. 2Bushmaster 25 mm chain guns 3 × M2HG Browning 12.7 mm 50 caliber machine guns 2 × M240 7.62 mm machine gun[4]

The BRP Ladislao Diwa (PS-178) is an Alvarez-class patrol ship of the Philippine Navy. She is the Philippine Navy's third ship of the class and was previously a Cyclone-class patrol ship named USS Chinook (PC-9) during her service with the US Navy.

History[edit]

United States Navy[edit]

Launched as the ninth of fourteen ships of the Cyclone-class patrol ship, the primary mission of USS Chinook (PC-9) was to serve as a platform for conducting maritime special operations, including interdiction, escort, noncombatant evacuation, reconnaissance, operational deception, intelligence collection, and tactical swimmer operations. Her small size, stealthy construction and high speed were tailored to performing long-range Special Operations Forces (SOF) insertion and extraction as well as other SOF support duties as needed.

On 10 January 2023, Chinook, along with sister patrol ship USS Monsoon (PC-4) and guided-missile destroyer USS The Sullivans (DDG-68), stopped and boarded a fishing vessel in the Gulf of Oman that was smuggling over 2000 AK-47 assault rifles.^[5]

Chinook together with sistership Monsoon were decommissioned from the US Navy on 28 March 2023,^[6] and were transferred to the Philippine Navy on the same day.^[1][7]

Philippine Navy[edit]

She was rechristened as BRP Ladislao Diwa (PS-178) on 11 September 2023, in honor of a Filipino revolutionary in its war of independence from Spanish colonial rule.^[8][9] She is currently assigned to the Littoral Combat Force of the Philippine Fleet.^[3]

The ship is the first ever Philippine Navy ship to use the name.

See also[edit]

• List of ships of the Philippine Navy

References[edit]