A fourth Australian ship set sail on Tuesday for a sea area 1,800 kilometers west of Perth to assist with surface sweep operations searching for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

Sources with Australian Department of Defense (DOD) said that the DMS Maritime vessel, Seahorse Standard, will join a flotilla of three other Australian vessels and more than six Chinese ships. A Malaysian frigate will join the search area soon.

Seahorse Standard is a highly maneuverable vessel with considerable experience in deep-sea search and recovery operations such as the recovery of Blackhawk Helicopter 221 off the Solomon Islands in 2007, the DOD said in a press release.

The ship will sail for approximately five days to reach the search area where other two ships, HMAS Success and HMAS Toowoomba, are currently conducting search operations.

Australian Defense Vessel Ocean Shield which departed for the search area late on Monday is expected to arrive in the search area by April 4.

The Commander of Joint Task Force 658 which is coordinating military contributions to the search for MH370, Commodore Peter Leavy said the addition of Seahorse Standard would expand the surface search capability and the ability to collect surface debris if found.

He stressed that current weather conditions were making the search more difficult.

"The surface search vessels are experiencing strong winds and heavy seas, but conditions are expected to ease. The priority remains to find objects that can be linked to missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370," Commodore Leavy said.

According to Angus Houston, chief of the Joint Agency Coordination Center for searching the MH370, there are 10 aircraft and 9 ships from 16 countries in the searching area on Tuesday.

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