2nd Fleet Focus: USS Bataan Responds to Gustav

Navy Times is reporting the USS Bataan (LHD 5) will be putting to sea Monday for potential response for Hurricane Gustav.

The amphibious assault ship Bataan will get underway Monday for what officials are calling a “readiness at sea event”

The ship’s initial mission will be to prepare for disaster response, according to Vice Adm. Mel Williams, the 2nd Fleet commander.

There is some irony, for those who may not remember, the USS Bataan (LHD 5) was in the Gulf of Mexico 3 years ago during Hurricane Katrina, and one of the lessons learned noted how the ship was never well utilized, mostly due to communication problems and agency coordination issues.

As we look observe much of the analysis of this storm, it does appear we can expect to see considerably more damage to Louisiana from Gustav than we saw from Katrina, and an even larger set of problems. Katrina hit Mississippi very hard, but Gustav will end up hitting Baton Rogue and Lafayette with wind damage harder than what we expect to see in New Orleans. With much of the state command and control networks built into Baton Rogue and Lafayette, but with heavy flooding expected in New Orleans, command and control will immediately be tested.

From our point of view, the USS Bataan (LHD 5) deployment is coming a day late, and it is particularly noteworthy the Navy will have difficulty deploying more ships from the east coast if necessary. Hurricane Hanna will soon be influencing the lines of communication at sea off the east coast of Florida, meaning after Monday any other ships will be forced to take the long route through heavy seas around Hanna to help in the Gulf Coast. It will be interesting to see how this develops, but if major damage hits Baton Rogue, Lafayette, and New Orleans, we might end up wishing we had more ships at sea.