Australia's gift to Philippines: Two landing ships

MANILA, Philippines - The Australian government will donate two heavy landing craft (LCH) vessels to the Philippine government.

Australian Minister for Defense Kevin Andrews announced Thursday the Philippines will receive newly decommissioned HMAS Tarakan and HMAS Brunei from the Royal Australian Navy.

"I expect the vessels will be refitted and ready for hand over in May 2015," Andrews said in a statement.

The ships will be refurbished with new safety and navigation equipment and include a package of spare parts before they are handed over to Manila.

The units are expected provide additional intra-theater sealift capability to deliver supplies and equipment.

Andrews noted the lack of such capability hampering efforts to assist the Philippines' coastal areas devastated by Supertyphoon Yolanda (international name Haiyan) in 2013.

"The Landing Craft will greatly improve the Philippines’ ability to respond to natural disasters by enabling heavy equipment and large amounts of aid to be moved to affected areas," he said.

The Landing Craft Heavy fleet was decommissioned from Australian service at a ceremony in Cairns on Nov. 19, 2014.

Australia has also offered the Philippines to purchase the remaining three vessels in the fleet, namely HMAS Wewak, Betano and Balikpapan decomissioned in 2012.

The Philippine Navy currently has eight landing craft vessels in service.