Bangladesh Gets Fifth Frigate

The Bangladesh Navy's fifth frigate, built at a cost of $100 million, arrived at the Chittagong naval port on Saturday. The frigate, 339-ft. (103.5 ,) long, is named "Bangabandhu" -- the honorific title of Bangladesh's slain independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman -- and is equipped with missile and torpedo launchers and a helipad. The vessel was built by South Korea's Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Co, after making the winning bid in 1997. Captain Zahir Uddin Ahmed of the Bangladesh Navy, who piloted the vessel to Chittagong from the Okpo shipyard on Korea's Koje island, was trained with more than 150 personnel in South Korea ahead of the delivery. The addition takes to five the total number of frigates in the 10,500-man Bangladesh Navy, three of the ships formerly British and one Chinese. - (Reuters)