Ex US vessel taken over by SL Navy, commissioned as SLNS Gajabahu

The vessel taken over by the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) from the US government, was commissioned yesterday as ‘SLNS Gajabahu’ by President Maithripala Sirisena.

With the commissioning of this ship, which was an ex-vessel of the United States Coast Guard Cutter (USCGC) ‘Sherman’, it would be the lead ship of the fleet of vessels of the SL Navy (flagship).

SLNS Gajabahu is a 115m long ship equipped with the state of the art weapons and machinery. Once the ship joins the SLN fleet, she will take the place as the largest platform to be held by the SLN.

The ship is commanded by Captain Rohitha Abeysinghe and its crew would comprise 22 officers and 111 sailors.

The vessel was acquired by the Navy from the US government last year and after 9 months of repairs and modification in the USA, the ship commenced her homebound passage from Hawaii on April 2 this year, Captain Abeysinghe said.

He said the ship would be utilized for patrol and surveillance missions providing maritime security and assistance to search and rescue operations. State Minister of Defence and Media Minister Ruwan Wijewardena who also attended the commissioning ceremony, appreciated the US government for handing over one of its vessels to Sri Lanka to strengthen the Navy.

Commenting on a question raised by a journalist on receiving such a vessel specially from the USA, the minister said not only for the SL Navy, the US government also assisted Sri Lankan tri-forces in many ways to strengthened the security.

“Not only the USA, but also several other countries such as, China, India, Pakistan and England have assisted our forces, specially after the Easter Sunday attack.to beef up the security in the country we need to obtain as much as assistance from foreign countries,” the minister said.