Three former Royal Australian Navy Balikpapan Class Landing Craft are to be transfered to the Philippines. A Dutch Company shared photos of one of its vessels loading three former Royal Australian Navy Landing Craft bound for Philippines.Three Vessels, HMAS Balikpapan, HMAS Wewak and HMAS Betano were retired by Australia in December 2012 while the remaining ships of the class Brunei, Labuan and Tarakan were decommisioned in November 2014.Navy spokesman Capt. Lued Lincuna said the three LCHs were delivered and offloaded by a huge cargo vessel of NTG Shipping in Liloan, Cebu City last March 26. Prior to the delivery, two of the LCHs were picked up in Darwin and another in Cairns, Australia. The three are sister ships of BRP Ivatan (formerly HMAS Tarakan) and BRP Batak (ex-HMAS Brunei) that were commissioned into the Navy service last Aug. 10. Lincuna said the transport ships would be moved from Cebu to the shipyard in Sangley Point, Cavite in May in time for the Navy’s 118th founding anniversary. Australia previously gifted two landing crafts to the Philippine Navy. Ex-HMA Ships Tarakan and Brunei, were re-commissioned into the Philippine Navy as BRP Ivatan(AT298) and BRP Batak(AT299).
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