U.S. research ship arrives in Philippines

The research vessel U.S. President Barack Obama promised to give the Philippines arrived in Manila on Thursday, the Philippine military said.

Navy Capt. Lued Lincuna said RV Melville, now renamed BRP Gregorio Velasquez, dropped anchor at the anchorage of Manila Bay around 11 a.m. local time.

The vessel is one of the two oceanography vessels that Obama pledged to donate to the Philippines during his visit to Manila in November last year to attend the APEC Informal Leaders' Meeting.

Lincuna said the Philippine Navy sent a 30-soldier team to a U.S. naval base in San Diego, California in March to man the vessel in its voyage to the Philippines.

"The ship will provide the Philippine Navy the capability for hydrographic survey and will also become a platform for inter-agency collaboration partners from the academe and thus improve awareness of our sub-surface environment," Lincuna said.

Built in 1969, the ship was formerly under the Scripps Institution Oceanography as part of the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System. The Melville is the oldest active vessel in the academic research fleet known as the University National Oceanographic Laboratory System.

Lincuna said it is the first research vessel of the Philippine Navy.

Aside from the research ship, Obama also promised another Hamilton-class cutter for the Philippine Navy.

The cutter, the third for the Philippines, is the U.S. Coast Guard Boutwell, a sister ship to the BRP Gregogiro del Pilar, formerly the USGC Hamilton which the Philippine acquired in 2011, and the BRP Ramon Alcaraz, formerly the USGC Dallas, which arrived in the Philippines in 2013. All had come from the U.S.

Both the Melville and the Boutwell will be transferred to the Philippine Navt as excess defense articles. Endit