5th Fleet Focus: News and Events

Christopher Allbritton, one of the original war bloggers, returned to Iraq this week and gives us an excellent dispatch from the Iraqi Oil Terminals. In the article he interviews Cmdr. Jim Aiken, the captain of the USS Chung-Hoon (DDG 93).

The UK 15 happened when the British were in command of CTF 158. On July 17, the Americans resumed command. Something like Iran's sailor snatch "will not happen on our watch," Aiken said. "And we have a code of conduct."

What does that mean? I asked. Aiken kind of hemmed and hawed, but eventually let me know that, unlike the British, the Americans will shoot back.

In this modern politically correct era, this is probably offensive to someone who has never been outside the luxury of the western world and has no perspective at all regarding the dangers in guarding the most important piece of property Iraq owns. In my opinion, we need more of this kind of talk and louder, because personally I think the liberals are absolutely correct that talking to the bad guys is an important part of keeping the peace, and what you say matters. Australia proved it is the right approach to take, and my bet is the Royal Navy will take that approach next time.

HMCS Toronto (FFH 333) deployed on its 5 month deployment as apart of Operation Sextant mission, which is the Canadian Navy mission for Standing NATO Maritime Group 1 (SNMG1). HMCS Toronto (FFH 333) will be apart of the SNMG1 12,500 nautical mile circumnavigation around Africa for 2 months. They should have plenty to do, as Eagle1 pointed out here, here, and here there have been 3 ships reported missing off Somalia in just the last 2 weeks, not to mention the rest of the piracy in the area.

To the endless frustration of a friend of mine, the HMCS Toronto (FFH 333) deployed without a helicopter. Maybe I am missing something, but it seems to me someone dropped the ball on this one. The UAV market is about to explode, if there is a company out there in the UAV industry but is on the outside looking in to the giants of the industry, this was a major marketing opportunity lost. Here we have a ship, on a high visibility mission, with an empty hanger just begging to be filled with a low cost alternative. There is a village somewhere missing a defense industry salesman, who would have thought that possible?

The article also noted the HMCS Charlottetown (FFH 339) will have a helicopter aboard when it departs to the Persian Gulf later this year.

As I indicated last week, the announcement has come regarding the deployment of the Kearsarge Expeditionary Strike Group and the 22nd MEU to the Persian Gulf region. The strike group will begin its departure on July 30th. The Navy and Marine Corp deserves a lot of credit, because the efficiency in maintaining these deployment schedules has become very impressive.

Kearsarge Expeditionary Strike Group

USS Kearsarge (LHD 3)
USS Ponce (LPD 15)
USS Gunston Hall (LSD 44)
USS Vicksburg (CG 69)
USS Porter (DDG 78)
USS Carr (FFG 52)
USS Miami (SSN 755)

22nd MEU

3rd Battalion, 8th Marines (BLT 3/8)
Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 261 (Reinforced) (HMM 261 (REIN))
Combat Logistics Battalion 22 (CLB 22)

The Enterprise Carrier Strike Group is currently in the Med, with the USS Enterprise (CVN 65) conducting exercises with the French while the USS Forrest Sherman (DDG 98) is making a port visit in Greece. Interestingly enough, I noticed there is another US ship that also pulled into Souda Bay yesterday, the USNS Lewis and Clark (T-AKE 1).

Picture here. It is a nice thought that at least one ship class under construction is a success story.