The US Navy took delivery of a new John Lewis-class fleet replenishment oiler (T-AO) on Tuesday, May 7.
The delivery of USNS Earl Warren follows the successful completion of integrated sea trials to test the readiness and capability of the ship and to validate requirements.
The John Lewis-class ships are based on commercial design standards and will provide underway replenishment of fuel to US Navy ships at sea. These ships were all built by General Dynamics NASSCO and are part of the navy’s Combat Logistics Force.
The vessel will provide diesel fuel and lubricating oil and small quantities of fresh and frozen provisions, stores, and potable water to US Navy ships at sea, as well as jet fuel for aircraft. The ship also boasts the capacity to carry up to 157,000 barrels of oil, a significant dry cargo capacity, and aviation capability courtesy of a helicopter deck.
As an auxiliary ship, Earl Warren is fitted only with defensive armament consisting of multiple Browning M2 12.7mm crew-served machine guns.
The T-AO honours the late Earl Warren, a former Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
AARON-MATTHEW LARIOSA FEBRUARY 28, 2024 7:25 PM – UPDATED: FEBRUARY 28, 2024 10:22 PM
Amid increasing tensions in the South China Sea with China and fears of how a conflict over Taiwan could jeopardize the country’s territories in the Luzon Strait, the Philippines is looking to prioritize its naval forces in a revised military modernization plan.
Despite Manila’s encounters with China in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone, including the construction of several military bases on artificial islands, and run-ins with Chinese vessels over the last decade, the Armed Forces of the Philippines remains underequipped, experts agree.
“The Philippine Navy has lagged behind many of its Southeast Asian peers for decades as a consequence of relative neglect as the country focused then heavily on internal security. This also resulted, most crucially, a neglect of the country’s maritime domain. Philippine maritime interests, especially in the West Philippine Sea, have been compromised,” Collin Koh, a research fellow at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies under the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, told USNI News.
Following the 2012 Scarborough Shoal Incident, which resulted in the effective Chinese occupation of the feature within the Philippine EEZ, Manila restarted a 1990s-era modernization act previously set aside due to financial constraints. The Revised Armed Forces of the Philippines Modernization Act called for the procurement of equipment, particularly naval vessels and aircraft, to raise the AFP’s capabilities and deter further encroachment in the South China Sea.
The Philippine Navy was set to spend over $40 billion on procurements in two four-year and one five-year-long phases, known as “horizons,” between 2013 and 2028. Today, only a fraction of the spending originally planned has been executed. The armed forces failed to complete the first two horizon phases due to a lack of funds from the Philippine government and the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Republic of the Philippines Navy ship BRP Humabon (PF 11) steams in formation for a photography exercise as a part of exercise Balikatan 2010 (BK 10). US Navy Photo
The funding shortfall upended the Philippine Navy’s Strategic Sail Plan 2020. The 2012 modernization plan called for the service to procure six anti-air warfare frigates, 12 anti-submarine corvettes, 18 offshore patrol vessels, 42 missile boats and three attack submarines, as well as various amphibious and auxiliary vessels. Since then, the service has procured two frigates, three corvettes, six offshore patrol vessels and nine missile boats.
As tensions with China have risen over the last year, Manila has started to revise its plan. Following incidents at Scarborough Shoal, Second Thomas Shoal and elsewhere in the South China Sea in 2022 and 2023, the Philippines has bolstered its naval deployments to the region. Philippine lawmakers also pledged increased funding for the navy and coast guard.
“Manila’s assertive transparency campaign of 2023 pushed military modernization from one of many budget line items to a national imperative. This is a crucial, tangible way in which transparency contributed to Philippine national resilience against [People’s Republic of China] coercion,” he added.
In January, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. approved a $35 billion acquisition list put forward by the Armed Forces of the Philippines for a revised version of Horizon 3 – almost equivalent to the total cost projected forby the original program. In contrast, the previous administration only approved $5.6 billion for Horizon 2.
Dubbed Re-Horizon 3, this revised phase seeks to not only obtain new equipment but also remove inefficiencies, streamlining the procurement process and developing a better defense strategy.
Secretary of National Defense Gilbert Teodoro told reporters that the Philippines has to “marshal the resources of making the best of what we have, making sure that acquisitions made are supportable [and] sustainable, and redundancy is built-in.”
“We have said that the [AFP and Department of National Defense] will not be a vendor’s paradise. We will not consider ourselves a ‘vendee’ but a client. We will demand performance from all our proponents,” Teodoro said in a Philippine Daily Inquirer article.
Teodoro blasted inefficiencies in the modernization and procurement laws, calling them “cursed.”
BRP Antonio Luna (FF 151) conducts a patrol off Mavulis Island in the Luzon Strait between the Philippines and Taiwan. Philippine Navy photo
Alongside Re-Horizon 3, the new Comprehensive Archipelagic Defense Concept put forward by Philippine defense officials brings an increased emphasis on naval and air forces for the defense of the country. In this strategy, the traditionally internally focused AFP is envisioned operating offshore in the EEZ and beyond.
The Philippine Navy’s missions include patrols from the EEZ to the internal waterways of the 7,641-island country. Moreover, with an external threat from China, the force is looking to acquire high-end anti-air and submarine warfare capabilities.
Manila-based Geopolitical Analyst Don McLain Gill emphasized the need for upcoming procurements.
“The next step will be to ensure how such acquisitions can be effectively and practically integrated into the Philippines’ overarching desire to enhance its ability to secure both its internal waters and surrounding seas,” said Gill.
Koh highlighted that the country’s other maritime security organizations could “to some extent” reduce the funds the Philippine Navy needs for inland duties.
“The Philippine Coast Guard – and to a lesser extent Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources – modernization and recapitalization program can help free up the Philippine Navy to focus more on conventional warfighting and other military missions than just patrolling and enforcing the country’s EEZ,” said Koh.
Equipped with Japanese and French patrol vessels, the Philippine Coast Guard has been frequently deployed to the South China Sea to protect Philippine fishermen, ward off foreign vessels and escort Philippine Navy resupply missions to Second Thomas Shoal. The Philippine Coast Guard is set to procure a large number of ocean-going patrol ships in an upcoming modernization act.
Rendering of HHI’s corvette design for the Philippine Navy. While classified as a corvette, the incoming warships will displace more and have more weaponry than the Jose Rizal-class frigates already in service. HHI Graphic
Other major procurements include four landing platform docks from PT PAL Indonesia, which are the largest ships in the Philippine Navy at 7,200 tons.
Donations from the U.S. include three Hamilton-class cutters and three Cyclone patrol ships. These patrol vessels frequently patrol the South China Sea and waters around Mindanao. An additional four patrol vessels, two Protector and two Island-class patrol boats, were eyed for transfer to the Philippines pending congressional notification requirements, according to a White House press release last year.
Joshua Bernard Espeña, vice president at the Manila-based think tank International Development and Security Cooperation, told USNI News that he expected the Philippine Navy to procure more of the same offshore patrol vessels, corvettes and frigates previously procured by Manila to bolster its presence in the South China Sea.
“These relatively small but multi-role surface platforms are just what the AFP needs to put a presence in much shallow[er] EEZ waters. Especially on a tight budget, the PN needs flexible navigation for tactical and operational gains,” said Espeña.
On the other hand, Espeña views the procurement of submarines as a “symbolic acquisition” due to the conditions of the South China Sea. The attack boats would be better suited to operating in the Luzon Strait between the Philippines and Taiwan, he acknowledged.
The Philippine Navy retired its last World War II-era surface combatant in 2021 without a replacement, which reduced the overall ship count of the service. Koh emphasized that the service must view modernization through a “qualitative and quantitative lens.”
Espeña advocates for a “good enough” defense plan for Philippine forces and assigns the high-end fighting to the U.S. under the 1951 U.S.-Philippine Mutual Defense Treaty.
“Here, we leave the U.S. 7th Fleet to do the rest of a Mahanian style of warfare on the high seas. It sounds downgraded when we look at the tip of the iceberg; my hunch is that the DND seeks to optimize AFP’s Joint Operational Concept by bringing in more air defense, shore-based missile cruise missile systems, and fixed and rotary multirole wing systems, among others,” said Espeña.
Aaron-Matthew Lariosa is a freelance defense journalist based in Washington, D.C. https://platform.twitter.com/widgets/follow_button.2f70fb173b9000da126c79afe2098f02.en.html#dnt=false&id=twitter-widget-0&lang=en&screen_name=Aaron_MatthewIL&show_count=false&show_screen_name=true&size=m&time=1715301378009
Amphibious combat vehicles attached to Alpha Company, Battalion Landing Team 1/5, 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, drive in formation back to the amphibious landing dock USS Harpers Ferry (LSD 49) following a waterborne gunnery live-fire training during Exercise Balikatan 24 in Oyster Bay, Philippines, May 4, 2024. BK 24 is an annual exercise between the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the U.S. military designed to strengthen bilateral interoperability, capabilities, trust, and cooperation built over decades of shared experiences. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Patrick Katz)
Amphibious Combat Vehicles disembarked from USS Harpers Ferry (LSD-49) and into Philippine waters during Balikatan 2024 over the weekend, marking the maiden deployment of the Marine Corps’ newest armored asset in the Indo-Pacific.
Succeeding the 1970s-era Amphibious Assault Vehicle, the ACV brings updated survivability and tactical mobility to Marines at sea and ashore. The service plans to procure 632 ACVs spread among four variants, which include a personnel carrier, command and control vehicle, recovery variant and a 30-mm turret version.
Attached to the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit under Alpha Company, Battalion Landing Team 1/5, the ACVs participated in a live-fire gunnery drill at Oyster Bay, Palawan. The ACVs organized into assault sections and engaged shore-based targets with their remotely controlled Mk 19 automatic grenade launchers, according to a news release on the first deployment.
Exercise officials also confirmed the ship-to-shore movement of the ACVs in the Philippines during Balikatan to USNI News, but according to the release, this did not occur during the gunnery drill. Following the firing and maneuvers, the ACVs returned to Harpers Ferry.
“Today’s training is a proof of concept across the Marine Corps for successful ACV employment in its intended environment,” Col. Sean Dynan, the commanding officer of the 15th MEU, said in the release.
Despite challenges brought on by the notable absence of planned Balikatan participant USS Boxer (LHD-4), also slated to carry the new armored vehicles, the 15th MEU still managed to continue the maiden deployment via Harpers Ferry. Capt. Colin Kennard, a public affairs officer with Balikatan, told USNI News that “planners were able to adjust exercise activities to meet bilateral training objectives, given the equipment and personnel available.”
This deployment marks the first operational use of armored amphibious assault transports by the service since a 2020 AAV mishap that resulted in the death of eight Marines and a sailor, which promptly led the service to cease all operations of the aging vehicles outside of the direst cases.
The ACV’s deployment timeline was also disrupted by various issues, from training mishaps in the California surf, to faulty towing mechanisms. The Marine Corps originally planned to deploy the ACVs for the first time with the Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group and the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit in 2022, but halted the deployment after a training incident that July. The three ships in the ARG had completed ACV certifications prior to the delay.
A Marine Corps amphibious combat vehicle attached to Alpha Company, Battalion Landing Team 1/5, 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, splashes off the amphibious dock landing ship USS Harpers Ferry (LSD-49) during Exercise Balikatan 24 in Naval Detachment Oyster Bay, Palawan, Philippines, May 4, 2024. US Marine Corps Photo
With this first deployment, the service wants to learn how the ACV performs in the field.
“[The] 15th MEU will continue to provide insights for ACV employment, embarkation, maintenance requirements, logistics trains, and integration with our allies and partners,” according to the release.
240508-N-IM467-1017
TAIWAN STRAIT (May 8, 2024) Seaman Gary Beckles, from Laurel, Maryland, stands port lookout aboard the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Halsey (DDG 97) during routine underway operations while transiting through the Taiwan Strait, May 8. Halsey is forward-deployed and assigned to Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 15, the Navy’s largest DESRON and the U.S. 7th Fleet’s principal surface force. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd class Ismael Martinez)
Destroyer USS Halsey (DDG-97) performed a Taiwan Strait transit on Wednesday, U.S. 7th Fleet announced.
“The ship transited through a corridor in the Strait that is beyond the territorial sea of any coastal State.” U.S. 7th Fleet said in a statement. “Halsey‘s transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the United States’ commitment to upholding freedom of navigation for all nations as a principle. No member of the international community should be intimidated or coerced into giving up their rights and freedoms.”
China’s People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command surveilled the transit, according to the Ministry of National Defense.
“The troops of the PLA Eastern Theater Command will remain on high alert at all times and resolutely safeguard China’s national sovereignty as well as regional peace and stability,” said People’s Liberation Army Senior Capt. Li Xi, a spokesperson for the Eastern Theater Command.
China typically protesters U.S. ship transits and P-8A surveillance flights through the strait. Last month, the same PLA Eastern Theater Command criticized a P-8A flight over the strait.
Until 6 a.m. local time on Wednesday, 6 PLAN ships and 16 PLA aircraft were sailing and flying near Taiwan, according to Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense.
Halsey‘s transit is the third publicly announced Taiwan Strait transit in 2024. Destroyer USS John Finn (DDG-113), which is based in Yokosuka, Japan, performed transits through the 90-mile wide strait in January and March.
Halsey, based at Naval Base San Diego, is part of the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group. Carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) was operating in the South China Sea as of Monday, according to the USNI News Fleet and Marine Tracker.
The submarine chasers’ range of about 900 miles (1,400 km) at a cruising speed of 10 knots (19 km/h) restricted their operations to off-shore anti-submarine work and denied them an open-ocean escort capability; their high consumption of gasoline and limited fuel storage were handicaps the Eagle class sought to remedy. They were originally commissioned USS Eagle Boat No.1 (or 2,3..etc.) but this was changed to PE-1 (or 2,4.. etc.) in 1920. They never officially saw combat in World War I, but some were used during the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War.[1] PE-19, 27, 32, 38, 48 and 55–57 survived to be used in World War II.[2] Attention turned to building steel patrol vessels. In their construction, it was necessary to eliminate the established shipbuilding facilities as possible so…
A boom defence vessel was a type of small auxiliary ship. A net layer’s primary function was to lay and maintain steel anti-torpedo or anti-submarine nets. Nets could be laid around an individual ship at anchor, or around harbors or other anchorages. Net laying was potentially dangerous work, and net laying seamen were experts at dealing with blocks, tackles, knots and splicing.
As the war progressed, net layers were pressed into a variety of additional roles including salvage, troop and cargo transport, buoy maintenance, and service as tugboats. HMS Barfoam was based at Freetown in the task of protecting the harbor entrance.
The dry cargo ship USNS Alan Shepard and the destroyer USS Gravely conduct a replenishment at sea in the Persian Gulf on Dec. 8, 2023. The Navy blamed the grounding of the Alan Shepard in Bahrain on July 15, 2023, on the absence of the ship’s master from the bridge at a key moment. (Merissa Daley/U.S. Navy)
A nearly 700-foot-long U.S. Navy cargo ship ran aground in Bahrain in 2023 almost immediately after its top officer left the bridge to eat dinner, a service investigation found. The decision by the master of the USNS Alan Shepard to leave the bridge and place a junior officer in charge was one of the key reasons for the ship’s grounding, according to a recently released summary of an investigation by U.S. Naval Forces Central Command. The incident last year on July 15 left the Alan Shepard stuck in the shoals for more than seven hours but caused only minor paint scratches on the hull and left no one injured, the investigation said. The U.S. narrowly avoided a disaster, said Sal Mercogliano, a maritime historian and professor at Campbell University in North Carolina. “It could have easily resulted in the loss of the ship,” Mercogliano said by phone last week after reviewing the investigation summary. The Alan Shepard, launched in 2006, transports dry cargo and ammunition, and has accommodations for more than 120 people, according to the Naval Vessel Register. The ship is crewed by civilian mariners licensed by the U.S. Coast Guard. The ship’s master when it went aground was Adel Desouki, a civilian captain with the Military Sealift Command, according to a statement by Cmdr. Tim Hawkins, NAVCENT spokesman at the time of the incident. The ship had 85 crewmembers aboard during the grounding, Hawkins said. The Alan Shepard was moving to a pier at Khalifa Bin Salman Port in Bahrain to complete repairs to one of its marine diesel generators, NAVCENT’s investigation summary said. Bahraini port authorities told the crew to wait for a harbor pilot to guide them into the pier, the summary said. The ship transited toward a designated waiting area. At 4:49 p.m., the master of the ship handed control to the third officer, told him to stay the course and keep the ship within the waiting area. The master, the navigator and the chief mate all then left the bridge to eat dinner, according to the findings. The third officer, who was not named in the report, navigated the ship into the waiting area but became distracted by a fishing boat, the report said. He turned the ship to the right to avoid the fishing boat, but in doing so ran the Alan Shepard into the nearby shoals. Roughly 20 minutes separated the ship’s master leaving the bridge and the Alan Shepard running aground, according to the investigation summary and publicly available maritime data reviewed by Stars and Stripes. The investigation blamed the grounding on officers failing to follow navigation procedures and the ship’s master not being present on the bridge as required by policy, the summary said. The ship’s standing orders said the master is supposed to be on the bridge near shallow waters, such as those in Bahrain. “This for me solely falls on the shoulders of the master,” Mercogliano said. A ship’s master would not typically leave the bridge while sailing through Bahrain’s busy waters, said Mercogliano, who has transited the region before as a merchant mariner. “You’re asking your most junior officer to do some tight maneuvering,” Mercogliano said, adding that the master could have gotten food delivered to the bridge. NAVCENT on Monday declined to provide information beyond what was released in the investigation summary. Desouki currently holds a valid merchant mariner credential, Melissa Leake, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Coast Guard, said in an email Friday. The Alan Shepard is underway in the Middle East, according to data by the maritime monitoring site MarineTraffic.com. Ship groundings can cause significant damage to hulls, propellers and surrounding infrastructure. In 2017, the missile cruiser USS Antietam ran aground in Japan and leaked an estimated 1,100 gallons of hydraulic oil into Tokyo Bay, Stars and Stripes reported at the time. And in 2014, the frigate USS Taylor ran aground in the Black Sea, causing $4.8 million in damage and leading to the commanding officer’s dismissal. J.P. LAWRENCE J.P. Lawrence reports on the U.S. military in Afghanistan and the Middle East. He served in the U.S. Army from 2008 to 2017. He graduated from Columbia Journalism School and Bard College and is a first-generation immigrant from the Philippines.
Read more at: https://www.stripes.com/branches/navy/2024-05-06/alan-shepard-aground-investigation-13768299.html?utm_source=Stars+and+Stripes+Emails&utm_campaign=Daily+Headlines&utm_medium=email Source – Stars and Stripes
Port Services Darwin members stand-by as HMAS Adelaide approaches the newly built Kuru Wharf at HMAS Coonawarra in Darwin, NT. Photo: LSIS Ernesto Sanchez
NAVAL 06 MAY 2024 By: Robert Dougherty
The Australian Defence Force has successfully docked one of Navy’s largest ships at HMAS Coonawarra, Darwin, for the first time, following the completion of the new Kuru Wharf.
The 230-metre-long landing helicopter dock (LHD), HMAS Adelaide, recently berthed at the new facility, which is part of a wider redevelopment of Navy’s Fleet Base North, Coonawarra.
Commanding Officer Coonawarra Captain David Shirvington said the first visit by an LHD was an important milestone in the development of the strategic northern maritime base.
“Having the ability to berth and sustain the RAN’s largest vessel class at 28,000 tonnes alongside a naval wharf in the north of Australia enhances our ability to support and achieve impactful projection of naval effects into Australia’s primary area of military interest,” CAPT Shirvington said.
“In this respect, the visit was an important stress test of the capability and has provided many lessons that can be applied to sustain further operations.”
The 322-metre-long wharf includes two approach dolphins and has already received a vote of confidence from Adelaide’s executive officer Commander Nicholas Paterson.
“The new Kuru Wharf at HMAS Coonawarra is a capability multiplier for the LHD,” CMDR Paterson said.
“The ability to have reliable, secure berthing space in the north is important to ensure the LHD’s ability to operate in these important strategic areas.
“The infrastructure supporting the wharf is also excellent.
“There are excellent staging areas for cargo and stores, the bollard placement means LHDs can securely remain alongside with very little need to adjust lines, and the state-of-the-art gangway system ensures safe, easy access, even with Darwin’s high tide ranges.”
Capable of transporting up to 18 helicopters, the two Canberra Class LHDs are the largest ships ever constructed for Australia’s fleet.
