BRP ''Valentin Diaz'' (PS-177) is an
''Alvarez''-class patrol ship of the
Philippine Navy
The Philippine Navy (PN) () is the naval warfare service branch of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. It has an estimated strength of 24,500 active service personnel, including the 10,300-strong Philippine Marine Corps. It operates 91 combat ...
. She is the Philippine Navy's second ship of the class and was a
''Cyclone''-class patrol ship previously named USS ''Monsoon'' (PC-4) during her service with the
US Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...
.
History
US Navy and US Coast Guard
Launched as the fourth of fourteen ships of the , the primary mission of was to serve as a platform for conducting maritime special operations, including interdiction, escort, noncombatant evacuation, reconnaissance, operational deception, intelligence collection, and tactical swimmer operations. Her small size, stealthy construction and high speed were tailored to performing long-range
Special Operations Forces
Special forces or special operations forces (SOF) are military units trained to conduct special operations. NATO has defined special operations as "military activities conducted by specially designated, organized, selected, trained and equip ...
(SOF) insertion and extraction as well as other SOF support duties as needed.
As good a design as it is, ''Monsoon'' had barely gone into service in the mid-1990s when the Special Operations Command rejected them as too big for commando missions, and the regular surface Navy dismissed them as too small for any of its missions. The Navy began looking for ways to phase out ''Monsoon'' and her
sister ship
A sister ship is a ship of the same Ship class, class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They o ...
s, so on 1 October 2004, ''Monsoon'' was decommissioned aon 1 October 2004.
She was then loaned and transferred to the
United States Coast Guard
The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and Admiralty law, law enforcement military branch, service branch of the armed forces of the United States. It is one of the country's eight Uniformed services ...
, being re-commissioned as USCGC ''Monsoon'' (WPC-4). The ships that were on loan to the U.S. Coast Guard were used in a variety of roles, including search and rescue, interception, boarding, and inspection of foreign freighters arriving at United States ports.
As a U.S. Coast Guard cutter, ''Monsoon'', along with helped with the arrest of Mexican
drug kingpin
A drug is any chemical substance other than a nutrient or an essential dietary ingredient, which, when administered to a living organism, produces a biological effect. Consumption of drugs can be via inhalation, injection, smoking, ingestion ...
Francisco Javier Arellano Félix
Francisco Javier Arellano Félix (born 11 December 1969) is a former Mexican drug lord who alongside his brothers founded and led the Tijuana Cartel (a.k.a. the Arellano-Félix Organization) until his capture by the United States Coast Guard o ...
in 2006 while he was deep-sea fishing off the
Baja Peninsula. The crew of ''Monsoon'' took him into custody and his U.S. registered fishing boat, ''Dock Holiday'', was towed back to
San Diego
San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...
from international waters by a Coast Guard patrol boat.
[Alfano, Sean; "Feds Land A Big Fish", CBS News]
She was returned to the U.S. Navy on 22 August 2008, and was re-commissioned. As of 2015, ten of the U.S. Navy's 13 ''Cyclone''-class patrol ships including ''Monsoon'' were deployed to
Naval Support Activity Bahrain
Naval Support Activity Bahrain (or NSA Bahrain) is a United States Navy base, situated in the Kingdom of Bahrain and is home to U.S. Naval Forces Central Command and United States Fifth Fleet.
Occupying the original territory of the British Roy ...
in the Persian Gulf, to deal with a potential conflict with Iran. The remaining three ships of the class are slated to be transferred to
Naval Station Mayport
Naval Station Mayport is a major United States Navy base on San Pablo Island in Jacksonville, Florida. It contains a protected harbor that can accommodate aircraft carrier-size vessels, ship's intermediate maintenance activity (SIMA) and a m ...
in Florida to primarily perform drug interdiction duties with
U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command
U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command (also known as USNAVSO) is the naval element of United States Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM). Its areas of operation include South America, Central America, the Caribbean and surrounding waters. Its headquarters ...
(USNAVSO) /
U.S. Fourth Fleet.
''Monsoon'' together with sistership ''Chinook'' were decommissioned again from the US Navy on 28 March 2023, and were transferred to the Philippine Navy on the same day.
[
]
Philippine Navy
She was rechristened as BRP ''Valentin Diaz'' (PS-177) on 11 September 2023, in honor of a Filipino revolutionary in its war of independence from Spanish colonial rule. She is currently assigned to the Littoral Combat Force of the Philippine Fleet.South China Sea
The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by South China, in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan island, Taiwan and northwestern Philippines (mainly Luz ...
with BRP Antonio Luna, BRP Gregorio del Pilar, USS Mobile of the US Navy, HMAS Warramunga of the Royal Australian Navy, and JS Akebono of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force. This marked the first multinational patrol between the nations.
See also
* List of ships of the Philippine Navy
This is a list of equipment used by the Philippine Navy, the branch of the Armed Forces of the Philippines that specializes in naval warfare. The service has made use of its existing equipment to fulfill its mandate while modernization projects ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Valentin Diaz (PS-177)
Cyclone-class patrol ships
1992 ships