Nigeria Spends $8m to Refurbish Warship

This Day

15 May 2011

Nigeria Spends $8m to Refurbish Warship

The refurbishment of NNS Thunder F90 (formerly CGC CHASE), which was transferred to the Nigerian Navy by the United States Coast Guard on Friday has gulped about $8 million.

The 378-foot warship is undergoing logistics-related refurbishment, which includes the replacement of equipment that is unique to US military.

Though the US gave Nigeria the warship, the nation is footing the bill for the refurbishment.

Commander of Fleet Support Group, Nigerian Navy, Commodore Sylvanius Chinueuba, confirmed the cost of refurbishment to journalists shortly after the Nigerian Navy took possession of the ship at a ceremony on Coast Guard Island in Alameda, California.

Chinueuba said its addition to the Nigerian Navy fleet, brings to two, the number of ships of similar mould - the other being NNS Aradu, the Nigerian Navy's flagship.

NNS Thunder F90, powered by two 3,500 horsepower diesel engines and two 18,000 horsepower gas turbines, with controllable-pitch propellers, can achieve a top speed of 28 knots and is equipped with a helicopter flight deck, retractable hangar and facilities to support helicopter deployment.

The warship, which was launched in 1967, belongs to the Hamilton class cutters, which had only twelve of its kind in US Coast Guard Fleet.

Until it was decomissioned in March 2011, the ship was used by the US Coast Guard for defence operations, maritime security/law enforcement, search and rescue, living marine resources, ports, waterway, and coastal security, alien-migrant interdiction, and drug interdiction.