BRP Conrado Yap (PS-39)


BRP Conrado Yap is a of the Philippine Navy. The vessel is the Philippine Navy's first modern corvette and one of its most heavily-armed unit. Korean-designed general purpose corvettes made originally for the Republic of Korea Navy, which were then transferred to several friendly countries including the Philippines.

Design

BRP Conrado Yap has a length of, a beam of and draft of. The ship has a displacement of 1,220 tons full load. It has a rated capacity for a crew consisting of 118 personnel and can operate non-stop for 20 days. The ship has a maximum speed of 30 knots and has a range of to 4,000 nautical miles. It is powered by a combined diesel or gas and LM2500 gas turbine.
Designed for coastal defense and anti-submarine operations. Being utilized by the Philippine Navy for anti-submarine warfare training in preparation for transition to the new frigates being built in South Korea for the Philippine Navy.
More units are expected to be requested for transfer, as the ROKN retires several more.

Armament

The ship's armament consists of two Oto Melara 76mm/62 caliber Compact naval guns, two Otobreda 40mm L/70 twin naval guns, two Mk. 32 triple torpedo launchers, six M2HB Browning.50 caliber machine guns, and two Mk.9 depth charge racks. The vessel is also equipped with a mount for a Simbad MANPADS firing station for MBDA Mistral and/or LIGNex1 Chiron VSHORAD missile system.

Service history

In 1987, ROKS Chungju was commissioned into the Republic of Korea Navy.
On 27 December 2016, ROKS Chungju was decommissioned by the ROKN. The ship was officially transferred to the Philippine Navy on 5 August 2019 during a commissioning ceremony at the Jinhae Naval Base. The ship was renamed after Filipino soldier Capt. Conrado Yap who fought in the Korean War.