The next humanitarian mission to SOUTHCOM appears to be in final preparations, and once again we see an amphibious ship deploying without Marines. This time the Navy is sending a LHD.Sailors and Marines aboard USS Boxer (LHD 4) began loading more than $139,000 of "Project Handclasp" supplies April 15 in preparation for their humanitarian and civic assistance mission to Central and South America this summer. Established by the U.S. Navy in 1962, Project Handclasp's primary mission is collecting and coordinating the distribution of humanitarian, educational and goodwill materials to those in need. The program uses empty cargo space on U.S. Navy ships to transport the materials to Navy ports of call.
Materials to supplement basic necessities like food, clothing and hygienic items are donated by America's private sector at no-cost to the government and personally distributed by Sailors and Marines to those in need overseas. Lt. Cmdr. Matt Brown, U.S. Southern Command's (USSOUTHCOM) Project Handclasp desk officer, said the upcoming deployment will continue the United States' successful policy of providing humanitarian assistance to our neighbors in Central and South America.
Either there is more to the deployment than the reported humanitarian focus, or it is time to have a debate regarding what ship types to deploy for humanitarian deployments. The LHD is the second largest conventionally powered combat ship in the US Navy inventory behind the Kitty Hawk, the third largest conventionally powered aviation platform in the world. If we believe this is solely a humanitarian mission, this appears to be the most expensive way to conduct a peacetime proactive humanitarian deployment. Using a LHD solely for a proactive humanitarian deployment is like flying a B-1 bomber to Guam for the sole purpose of delivering mail.
Obviously we believe there will be more going on with the USS Boxer (LHD 4) SOUTHCOM deployment than a humanitarian mission.
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