The Indonesian Navy ordered four high speed trimaran missile boats, very similar in appearance to our littoral combat ships, but smaller.  Here is a video of the launching of one of them, the Klewang.

 It appears to be a beautiful boat with excellent lines, but notice how oddly it appears to be plopped down on the beach, and launched directly off the beach itself.   Also, it is surrounded by what appear to be local villagers, who mill about only partly supervised right next to the boat.  On top of the ship there are two guys who are apparently there in some official capacity, but are unprofessionally dressed in shorts and casual shirts.  They look like they just came from a college dorm.

The launch itself seems poorly planned, with a line attached to a tug offshore, and what appears to be a large backhoe on the beach behind the boat to push it into the water.  All sorts of what appear to be villagers are all over the scene and even on the boat, helping is some fashion.  In the end, the Klewang gets in the water, but appears to have no power of its own, the motors either not yet functional or even uninstalled.

A very third world proceeding.



Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Klewang later caught fire at the shipyard while it's fittings were being completed, and it burned to the water line while a pathetic attempt with one fire hose from shore was made to put out the fire.  Here is video of the unfortunate end to a very pretty boat.



I guess you could have predicted something like this just by watching the video of the launch, which was characterized by disorganization, oddly make do planning, no real security, and complete unprofessionalism.  Try again, Indonesians, and this time perhaps learn from these mistakes.

All from the excellent Bayou Renaissance Man, whose consistently interesting posts have led me to add him to my blog list.