In a rare instance of an older warship losing a guided missile launch capability, the Cameroon Navy's 308-ton, 26-knot Bakassi had facilities to launch up to eight MM 40 Exocet antiship missiles deleted during a major refit completed this August at Lorient, France. The deck space amidships now is devoted to a large rectangular exhaust stack; previously, her two 3,200-brake-horsepower diesels had exhausted through ports in the hull sides. The Bakassi also had her two Decca navigational radars replaced by Furuno sets and the electronic warfare intercept system removed. Retained were the two single 40-mm guns. The 165-foot Bakassi was completed by Societe Francaise de Constructions Navales in 1983 and is the largest craft in Cameroon's small fleet.
The Endurance, first of four 8,500-ton (full load displacement) amphibious landing ships on order for the Singapore Navy from Singapore Technologies Marine, is seen here on trials that began this March. The 462.5-foot ship is to be commissioned next June. Sister ship Resolution was launched on 1 August 1998 and is nearing completion; the Persistence was launched on 13 March 1999; and the final unit is to enter the water next month. With a range of 12,000 nautical miles at 12 knots and a maximum speed of more than 15 knots, the Endurance can carry 350 troops, 18 tanks, and 20 other vehicles. A docking well beneath the two-spot helicopter deck aft can accommodate four large landing craft, and four LCVPs and two rigid-inflatable landing craft are carried beneath davits topside. Vehicles can debark over a beachhead via the bow ramp or can be offloaded over the stern ramp, which doubles as the docking-well door. Defensive armament is provided by an OTOBreda 76-mm gun and two Simbad launchers for Mistral heat-seeking missiles.
The launch of the 13,815-ton (full load displacement) Castilla at Ferrol on 14 June (left) will provide the Spanish Navy with its second modern amphibious warfare asset when the ship is commissioned in June 2001. Sister Galicia (above) was delivered in April 1998 in a cooperative program with the Netherlands, which saw the delivery that same month of the nearly identical Rotterdam to the Dutch Navy. A second Netherlands-built unit is planned to be started in 2003. The Spanish Navy ships replace the old ex-U.S. Navy transports Castilla (ex-Paul Revere [LPA-248], retired on 16 June 1999) and Aragon (ex-Francis Marion [LPA-249], to retire on completion of the new Castilla). The Spanish Navy also operates two ex-U.S. Navy Newport (LST-1179)-class tank landing ships acquired in 1994-95. The 535-foot, 20-knot Castilla will differ from the Galicia in having a German-made TRS-3D/16-ES air-search radar set, the SICOA command-and-control system, and enhanced communications and support facilities for a 65-strong Spanish Marine Corps staff—at the expense of a troop complement reduced to 404; the Galicia can accommodate 570 troops.