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VIDEO: Marine ACVs Make Operational Premiere in Balikatan 2024 Exercise

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)

AARON-MATTHEW LARIOSA MAY 7, 2024 1:47 PM

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.

Destroyer USS Halsey Sails Through Taiwan Strait

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)

MALLORY SHELBOURNE MAY 8, 2024 1:43 PM

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 Eagle class patrol craft were a set of steel ships smaller than destroyers but having a greater operational radius than the wooden-hulled, 110-foot (34 m) submarine chasers developed in 1917.

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…

HMS Barfoam at Singapore, early in World War II

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.

USNS Alan Shepard ran aground in Bahrain after captain left bridge to eat, investigation finds By J.P. LAWRENCE   STARS AND STRIPES • May 6, 2024

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

ADF trials new docking facilities at Kuru Wharf, HMAS Coonawarra

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.

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“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.

USS Pennsylvania (BB-38) was the lead ship of the Pennsylvania class of super-dreadnought battleships built for the United States Navy in the 1910s.

USS Pensylvannia

The Pennsylvanias were part of the standard-type battleship series, and marked an incremental improvement over the preceding Nevada class, carrying an extra pair of 14-inch (356 mm) guns for a total of twelve guns. Named for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, she was laid down at the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company in October 1913, was launched in March 1915, and was commissioned in June 1916. Equipped with an oil-burning propulsion system, Pennsylvania was not sent to European waters during World War I, since the necessary fuel oil was not as readily available as coal. Instead, she remained in American waters and took part in training exercises; in 1918, she escorted President Woodrow Wilson to France to take part in peace negotiations.

During the 1920s and 1930s, Pennsylvania served as the flagship of first the Atlantic Fleet, and after it was merged with the Pacific Fleet in 1921, the Battle Fleet. For the majority of this period, the ship was stationed in California, based in San Pedro. Pennsylvania was occupied with a peacetime routine of training exercises (including the annual Fleet problems), port visits, and foreign cruises, including a visit to Australia in 1925. The ship was modernized in 1929–1931. The ship was present in Pearl Harbor on the morning of 7 December 1941; she was in drydock with a pair of destroyers when the Japanese launched their surprise attack on the port. She suffered relatively minor damage in the attack, being protected from torpedoes by the drydock. While repairs were effected, the ship received a modernized anti-aircraft battery to prepare her for operations in the Pacific War.

Pennsylvania joined the fleet in a series of amphibious operations, primarily tasked with providing gunfire support. The first of these, the Aleutian Islands Campaign, took place in mid-1943, and was followed by an attack on Makin later that year. During 1944, she supported the landings on Kwajalein and Eniwetok in the Marshall Islands and the Mariana and Palau Islands campaign, including the Battles of Saipan, Guam, Peleliu, and Battle of Angaur. During the Philippines campaign, in addition to her typical shore bombardment duties, she took part in the Battle of Surigao Strait, though due to her inadequate radar, she was unable to locate a target and did not fire. During the Battle of Okinawa, she was torpedoed by a Japanese torpedo bomber and badly damaged, forcing her to withdraw for repairs days before the end of the war.

Allocated to the target fleet for the Operation Crossroads nuclear tests in 1946, Pennsylvania was repaired only enough to allow her to make the voyage to the test site, Bikini Atoll. She survived both blasts, but was badly contaminated with radioactive fallout from the second test, and so was towed to Kwajalein, where she was studied for the next year and a half. The ship was ultimately scuttled in deep water off the atoll in February 1948.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Pennsylvania_(BB-38)