One of India's most capable new surface combatants was commissioned into service on 29 April. The Shivalik is the first of a new class of Project 17 guided-missile frigates that incorporates signature-reduction measures, causing local media to dub the frigate India's first domestically produced "stealth" warship. The 6,200-ton (full load) Shivalik was built by Mazagon Dockyard of Mumbai and launched on 18 April 2003. The Shivalik began sea trials in 2009, and at least two additional sister units, the Satpura and Sahyadri, are currently under construction and expected to enter service by 2011. More frigates are planned for the future, and last summer India inked a deal for seven follow-on warships built to a modified design known as Project 17A.
In February, Chile welcomed its largest naval vessel into the fleet, as the 42,000-ton (full load) logistics support ship Almirante Montt was commissioned into service. The vessel, a retired U.S. Navy Henry J. Kaiser–class replenishment oiler, was previously named Andrew J. Higgins (AO-190) and is pictured here while still in U.S. service. Built by Avondale Shipyard in Louisiana, the replenishment ship was launched in January 1987 and entered service nine months later. After less than ten years of active duty for the United States, she was placed out of service in reserve in May 1996 and stricken from the U.S. Navy Vessel Register early last year. Sold to Chile in May 2009, the ship was renamed Almirante Montt and renumbered AO-53. The oiler has undergone a $30-million refit and was formally recommissioned on 10 February. She set sail for Chile on 29 March and arrived at Valparaiso Bay in April. The Almirante Montt replaces the Danish-built oiler Araucano, in service since 1967.
The Bangladeshi Navy is boosting its counter-terrorism capabilities and receiving patrol vessels from both the U.S. Coast Guard and British Royal Navy as it works to better protect its coastal regions. Sixteen 25-foot Defender-class patrol boats were transferred to Bangladesh from the U.S. Coast Guard in April. The transfer marks the largest delivery of vessels ever completed by the Coast Guard to any nation. At least five additional Defender-class boats are expected to transfer in the near future. Bangladesh also recently purchased the retired British patrol ships Leeds Castle (pictured here) and her sister ship Dumbarton Castle. These two large patrol ships are being readied in the United Kingdom for transfer at an as-yet undisclosed date. The two 1,500-ton (full load) Castle-class patrol ships originally were commissioned in 1981 and 1982 respectively and served 50 years of combined service with the Royal Navy, often sharing operational duties and alternating patrol schedules around the Falkland Islands. Leeds Castle was decommissioned from Royal Navy service in 2005 and sister Dumbarton Castle was retired in 2008.
Mr. Wertheim, a defense consultant in the Washington, D.C., area, is the author of The Naval Institute Guide to Combat Fleets of the World, 15th Edition, currently available from the Naval Institute Press at www.usni.org.