USS Spartanburg County (LST 1192)

History

Spartanburg County (LST-1192) (q.v.) was named after a county in South Carolina. She was laid down on 7 February 1970 at San Diego, by the National Steel and Shipbuilding Company; launched on 7 November 1970; sponsored by Mrs. Neville Holcombe; and commissioned on 1 September 1971, CDR P. R. Royse in command.

Following commissioning, Spartanburg County transited the Panama Canal to her new home port, Little Creek, Virginia, where she was assigned to the Amphibious Force, Atlantic Fleet. Here, the tank landing ship commenced an operating cycle consisting of amphibious training exercises along the east coast of the United States and in the Caribbean interspersed with scheduled deployments to the Mediterranean. Spartanburg County maintained this cycle into 1980. She served as part of Marine Amphibious Forces Desert Shield/Desert Storm August 1990 – April 1991.

Disposal

Spartanburg County was decommissioned and struck 16 December 1994. She was disposed of through the Security Assistance Program (SAP), transferred, cash sale, ex-US fleet hull foreign military sale case number assigned, to Malaysia as RMN KD Sri Inderapura (L-1505) on 16 December 1994.

Malaysian Service

The Spartanburg County was acquired at a cost of RM 48 million and commissioned into the Royal Malaysian Navy as the KD Sri Inderapura on 31 January 1995. Its first commanding officer was Captain Noor Azman bin Othman. The KD Sri Inderapura caught fire while berthed in Lumut Naval Base on 16 December 2002] and was damaged. She was subsequently rebuilt and continued serving RMN which included deployments to Somalian waters on September 2008 as part of the international anti-piracy efforts. On 8 October 2009, while the ship anchored in the Lumut Naval Base, a fire broke out on board that destroyed the ship. KD Sri Inderapura was officially decommissioned from the Royal Malaysian Navy on 21 January 2010.