The Teluk Bintuni class, Indonesian designation AT-117M is a class of tank landing ships that is being built indigenously for the Indonesian Navy by various Indonesian local shipyards. It was announced that the Indonesian Navy intends to acquire a total of twelve vessels of the same class with some modifications from the lead ship to improve ship's capability.[2]
Teluk Bintuni has a length of 120 metres (393 ft 8 in), a beam measuring 18 metres (59 ft 1 in), and a height of 7.8 metres (25 ft 7 in) with a draft of 3 metres (9 ft 10 in). She has a capacity of 476 passengers, including crew, alongside 10 Leopard 2 main battle tanks and a helicopter. The ship was designed to be able to stay at sea for 20 days.[3]
With a crew of 119, consisting of 113 sailors and 6 helicopter crew, she has a displacement of 2,300 tonnes and has a maximum speed of 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph). The ship is armed with light defensive weapons in form of a Bofors 40 mm gun and two 12.7 mm heavy machine guns.[4]
The vessel could also carry four LCVP boats, and is equipped with a crane for cargo loading and offloading.[5]
In January 2018, during a naval landing exercise at the Berhala Strait, Teluk Bintuni received a signal from a tugboat which was being hijacked by pirates. The vessel launched an LCVP and apprehended the hijackers.[6] She later brought supplies to areas affected by the 2018 Sulawesi earthquake and tsunami.[7]
In August 2019, Teluk Lada was dispatched to rescue hostages aboard MV Mina Sejati, a 36-crew squid fishing vessel which was hijacked by several members of her own crew off Tual, Maluku.[8][9] Mina Sejati was later discovered empty by Teluk Lada, with eleven survivors testifying that three of the crew had massacred the others.[10]
