Olayemi Esan
The Chief of Defence Staff, Ghana Armed Forces, Chief of the Naval Staff (Ghana Navy) and Head of Mission Nigerian High Commission Accra today 14th May 2021, paid a courtesy visit to the NNS Lana that arrived Tema-Ghana from Banjul in Gambia on the fourth leg of her maiden homeward voyage and is expected to arrive Nigeria on the 17th May.
The Nigerian Navy recently took delivery of NNS Lana from Ocean in Saint Nazaire, France. Being the Nigerian Navy’s first ever purpose built Offshore Survey Vessel, the new vessel was conceived as a replacement to the previous NNS Lana, a survey ship thatt was decommissioned about 10 years ago.
Notably, the construction of the Offshore Survey Vessel 190 Mk II (NNS Lana) commenced in December 2019 and the building process was successfully completed and the ship was launched on 24 September 2020 at Les Sables d’Olonne, France.
NNS Lana (A499) is designed and purposely built to enable the Nigerian Navy to conduct hydrographic and oceanographic surveys, the Nigerian Navy said. It is also capable of conducting geophysical studies, search and rescue operations as well as patrol duties. The ship is equipped with survey equipment as well as a 7.6 metre boat for shallow water surveys. The ship has an Automatic Weather Station (AWS), wet and dry laboratories, scientific and technical workshops as well as operating and processing rooms for survey data.
Machinery includes two MTU engines, three CAT main generators/one emergency generator, electric propul,sion system and other auxiliaries. The electric propulsion, which is operated at survey speed, is particularly installed to minimize distortion of data due to machinery noise. The ship has a maximum speed of 14 knots and a capacity of 50 crew.
NNS Lana was handed over to the Nigerian Navy in France on 15 January 2021 after the provisional acceptawere trials was concluded, the Nigerian Navy said. Crew training commenced in January 2021 and ended on 12 April.
