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John Currin

15 years in Royal New Zealand Navy

USS Ford Carrier Group Scheduled To Go Home

 

The world?s largest aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford steams alongside USNS Laramie (T-AO-203) during a fueling-at-sea in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, as a scheduled deployment in the U.S Naval Forces Europe area of operations, deployed by U.S. Sixth Fleet to defend U.S, allied, and partners interests, in this photo taken on October, 11, 2023 and released by U.S. Navy on October 14, 2023. U.S Naval Forces Central Command / U.S. 6th Fleet / Handout via REUTERS

The USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier strike group will leave the eastern Mediterranean Sea more than two months after being sent to the region following Hamas’ attack on Israel in October, ABC News reported. 

The carrier and other surface ships that form the strike group will head back to their home port of Norfolk, Virginia, in the “coming days” as originally scheduled, a senior US official and a US official told the outlet. The carrier group is returning to the US to prepare for future deployments. 

The US will still have military capability in the region and flexibility to deploy additional cruisers and destroyers in the Mediterranean and the Middle East, the senior US official told ABC. 

A Defense Department spokesman told ABC that they had nothing to announce today. 

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin directed the naval group to the region the day after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7. The carrier was sent to the region to bolster regional deterrence, Austin said at the time, in an effort to prevent the conflict from widening into a wider regional one. 

By Max Zimmerman © 2023 Bloomberg L.P.

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USS Lafayette (SSBN-616), the lead ship of her class of ballistic missile submarine, was the third ship of the United States Navy to be named to honor Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, a French military hero who fought alongside and significantly aided the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.

USS Lafayette (SSBN-616), the lead ship of her class of ballistic missile submarine, was the third ship of the United States Navy to be named to honor Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, a French military hero who fought alongside and significantly aided the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.

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USS Lafayette (SSBN-616), the lead ship of her class of ballistic missile submarine, was the third ship of the United States Navy to be named to honor Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, a French military hero who fought alongside and significantly aided the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.

USS Lafayette (SSBN-616), the lead ship of her class of ballistic missile submarine, was the third ship of the United States Navy to be named to honor Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, a French military hero who fought alongside and significantly aided the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.

USS Georgia (BB-15)

USS Georgia just after launch – 1904

Georgia underway, 1909

USS Georgia (Battleship # 15) (Battleship # 15) View looking down from the foremast during coaling, at the Charleston Navy Yard, South Carolina, circa 1919. Note: Georgia’s port 8/45 gun turret and coal barges alongside the battleship with crewmen bagging coal to be hoisted on board.

USS Georgia (Battleship # 15) Making 17.707 knots on Run # 9 of her trials, 13 June 1906. Note that her six-inch broadside guns have not yet been installed.

USS Georgia (BB-15) was a United States Navy Virginia-class battleship, the third of five ships of the class. She was built by the Bath Iron Works in Maine, with her keel laid in August 1901 and her launching in October 1904. The completed battleship was commissioned into the fleet in September 1906. The ship was armed with an offensive battery of four 12-inch (305 mm) guns and eight 8-inch (203 mm) guns, and she was capable of a top speed of 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph).

Georgia spent the majority of her career in the Atlantic Fleet. In 1907, she took part in the Jamestown Exposition and suffered an explosion in her aft 8-inch gun turret that killed or wounded 21 men. At the end of the year, she joined the Great White Fleet on its circumnavigation of the globe, which ended in early 1909. Peacetime training followed for the next five years, and in 1914 she cruised in Mexican waters to protect American interests during the Mexican Revolution. In early 1916, the ship was temporarily decommissioned.

When the United States entered World War I in April 1917, the ship was tasked with training naval recruits for the expanding wartime fleet. Starting in September 1918, she was used as a convoy escort. Her only casualties during the war were due to disease, the result of poor conditions and severe overcrowding aboard the ship. Georgia was used to transport American soldiers back from France in 1918–1919, and the following year she was transferred to the Pacific Fleet, where she served as the flagship of the 2nd Division, 1st Squadron. The Washington Naval Treaty, signed in 1922, cut short the ship’s career, as it mandated severe draw-downs in naval strength. Georgia was accordingly sold for scrap in November 1923.

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An EA-18G Growler, assigned to the “Gauntlets” of Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 136, recovers on the flight deck of Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70).

 Vinson, flagship of Carrier Strike Group ONE, is deployed to the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Joshua Sapien)

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First Romanian ex-Royal Navy Sandown-class minehunter arrives in country – by Kate Tringham

The Romanian Navy’s first Sandown-class minehunter arrives at the Port of Constanta on 19 December 2023. (Romanian MoD)

The first of two ex-Royal Navy (RN) Sandown-class mine-countermeasure vessels (MCMVs) procured by Romania from the United Kingdom has arrived in country.

Sub-Lieutenant Ion Ghiculescu (M 270), which previously served in the RN as HMS Blyth (M 111), departed the UK on 15 November and completed a 4,500 n miles journey across the Atlantic, Mediterranean, Sea of Marmara, and Black Sea to arrive at the Port of Constanta on 19 December 2023, the Romanian Navy said.

Ahead of its arrival in Romania, the ship’s crew of 40 personnel completed the RN Fleet Operational Sea Training (FOST) between July and November.

Sub-Lieutenant Ion Ghiculescu is one of two ex-RN Sandown-class minehunters acquired under a government-to-government agreement concluded between Romania and the UK. The vessel was decommissioned from RN service in 2021 and officially transferred to the Romanian Navy in September 2023. Ahead of its transfer the ship was refurbished by UK shipbuilder Babcock at its shipyard in Rosyth, Scotland.

The second vessel, HMS Pembroke , will be retired from service in early 2024 and is planned to be transferred to the Romanian Navy in the second quarter of 2024.

The two minehunters will join Romania’s 146th Mine Countermeasures Division.

Ex- Blyth and Pembroke are the latest Sandown-class minehunters to be sold by the UK as it works to progressively decommission the class by 2025. Of an original class of 12, the sale leaves just two remaining vessels in service: HMS Penzance and HMS Bangor .

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USS Mason Shoots Down Houthi Anti-Ship Ballistic Missile – HEATHER MONGILIO DECEMBER 28, 2023 9:24 PM – UPDATED: DECEMBER 28, 2023 9:48 PM

The guided-missile destroyer USS Mason (DDG-87) sails in the Gulf of Aden Nov. 25, 2023. US Navy Photo

USS Mason (DDG-87) shot down an anti-ship missile and a drone fired by the Houthis Thursday, U.S. Central Command announced via X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter.

This is the 22nd attack on international shipping, according to Central Command, although the X post did not say which ship was targeted. Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sare’e has not mentioned an attack on ships on Dec. 28 nor has Saba, the Yemeni state-run media site.

There were 18 ships in the southern Red Sea between 5:45 and 6:10 p.m. local time, during which Mason shot down the drone and missile. It is not clear how many of the ships were commercial or military.

Mason, along with USS Thomas Hudner and USS Carney, has shot down a number of Houthi-fired drones and missiles. Mason was the first U.S. ship to shoot down Houthi weapons back in October when it used SM-2s to take down Houthi-fired land-attack missiles and a number of drones, USNI News reported at the time.

The guided-missile destroyer shot down a drone on Dec. 14 while responding to a distress signal from Maersk Gibraltar, which Houthi forces attempted to board before launching missiles at it. As a result, Maersk temporarily paused shipping in the Red Sea.

Mason also responded to a distress call from M/V Central Park, a merchant ship attacked by Somali pirates. Mason picked up the pirates as they were headed toward Yemen. As of the latest information from the Department of Defense, the five alleged pirates are being held on the destroyer.

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China appoints new defense minister – By The Associated Press Dec 30, 03:33 AM

Ships attached to a destroyer flotilla with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy sail in formation en route to a training exercise in the East China Sea. (Wei Chenping/Chinese Defense Ministry)

BEIJING — China on Friday said it had appointed a new defense minister after months of uncertainty following the firing of his predecessor for reasons still unexplained.

The official Xinhua News Agency announced former naval commander Dong Jun would serve in the largely ceremonial role, but offered no comment on the reasons for the switch or the current circumstances of previous minister Li Shangfu, who has not been seen or heard from since August.

The uncertainty surrounding the leadership of the world’s largest standing military comes as Washington and its Asian allies are offering stronger resistance to China’s bid to assert itself as the dominant military power in the region.

Dong’s naval background is significant in that China has largely asserted its territorial claims using its massive force of warships, Coast Guard cutters and fishing boats acting as a maritime militia in the South China Sea. The People’s Liberation Army Navy has also expanded its range to the Mediterranean Sea, South Africa and beyond, while adding three aircraft carriers and a plethora of destroyers, nuclear-powered submarines and other latest-generation craft to its fleet.

Along with challenging the Philippines and other nations that hold maritime claims in the South China Sea, China challenges Japan for control of an uninhabited island group in the East China Sea and has engaged in deadly clashes with India along their contested border high in the Himalayan Mountains.

Li’s disappearance came amid what analysts have called a purge of officials in the highly influential military hierarchy, as well as those in the financial and diplomatic sectors, including former Foreign Minister Qin Gang, whose fate also remains unknown.

Speculation over the reason for the removals has ranged from corruption allegations to spying suspicions.

However, they also point to challenges facing the leader of the ruling Communist Party, head of state and supreme military commander Xi Jinping, who has made himself a long-term leader and waged a relentless campaign against all real or perceived threats to his hold on power, even as China’s economy stalls and its foreign relations have become more contentious over its support for Russia and other authoritarian regimes.

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