The former U.S. Navy Anchorage (LSD-36)-class dock landing ship Pensacola (LSD-38) was transferred to Taiwan as the Shui Hai after decommissioning on 22 September 1999. The 1999 offer of a second ship of the class, the ex-Fort Fisher (LSD-40), was not accepted, but the Republic of China Navy (ROCN) still hopes to acquire a second unit to replace its remaining World War II-built LSD. The 29 year-old, 13,680-ton Shui Hai is seen here at Norfolk, Virginia, prior to departing for Taiwan, where the ship arrived on 2 June. Unlike the ROCN's earlier LSDs, which have been employed primarily as transports to support troops on offshore islands, the Shui Hai, along with Taiwan's two former U.S. Navy Newport (LST 1179)-class tank landing ships, has been assigned as part of the "Fast-Response Amphibious Group" created on 1 May of this year. Taiwan maintains a greater seagoing amphibious lift capacity than its main land rival, but most of the ROCN's amphibs were completed more than half a century ago.
Formally recommissioned at Gdynia on 25 June, the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Polish Navy, the former USS Clark (FFG-11) has been renamed the Gen. K. Pulaski in honor of the Polish officer who greatly aided Continental Army forces during the American Revolution. The Oliver Hazard Perry (FFG-7)-class guided-missile frigate had been formally decommissioned on 15 November 1999 in preparation for her donation to NATO's newest navy on 15 March 2000. A second ship of the class, the Sides (FFG-14) is planned to be transferred during fiscal year 2003 as the Gen. T. Kosciuszko, in honor of another Revolutionary War hero. Poland also is negotiating with Germany's Blohm+Voss to construct a half-dozen A-100-class small stealth frigates. The first of the 1,900-ton, 297-foot ships would be constructed at Hamburg and the others at Gdynia, with Hamburg and the others at Gdynia, with last to complete in 2012. The ships would be armed in part with U.S. Harpoon and Sea Sparrow missiles.
The rusted hulk of the former Soviet Navy vertical take-off (VTOL) aircraft carrier Kiev, which had not operated since 1990 and was stricken in August 1994 and stripped of all useful equipment and materials, is seen here at Severomorsk just prior to departing under tow on 21 May 2000 for scrapping in China. The larger, even more decrepit, incomplete Kuznetsov-class carrier Varyag began a tow to China from Mikolayiv, Ukraine, on 14 June, also ostensibly (and probably) for scrapping. Meanwhile, negotiations with India for the transfer of the laid-up half sister to the Kiev, the Admiral Gorshkov, still are incomplete, although the Russians are hoping to obtain Indian signature on a contract to reactivate and extensively reconstruct the 44,570-ton ship as a cramped and awkwardly arranged conventional carrier to operate MiG-29K shipboard Fighters. A planned visit to India by Russian President Putin this fall is hoped to be the occasion for a formal contract signing for both the carrier and the fighters. The Kiev's sister VTOL carrier Novorossiysk, originally sold for scrapping in South Korea in 1994, was broken up in India at the end of the 1990x, and the other Pacific Fleet Kiev-class carrier, the Minsk (also originally sold to a South Korean firm for scrapping), has been on exhibit at a Chinese theme park since this May. The only active Russian carrier, the Northern Fleet's 59,100-ton Admiral Flota Sovetskogo Soyuza Kuznetsov, may yet make an on-again/off-again Mediterranean deployment this fall (with perhaps a dozen Su-33 Flanker-D interceptors and their pilots on board), although there have been numerous Russian press reports indicating that funds for the voyage are not available.