The Navy has fired the commanding officer of the USS Lake Erie, a guided missile cruiser based mostly in San Diego, the service introduced in an announcement late Thursday evening.
Capt. Danielle DeFant was relieved as commander of the Lake Erie by Rear Adm. Christopher Alexander, the commander of Provider Strike Group 9, on Thursday “as a consequence of a lack of confidence in her skill to command,” the assertion stated.
DeFant has change into no less than the ninth Navy commander to be faraway from command this yr.
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Cmdr. Arlo Abrahamson, a spokesman for the Naval Floor Drive, instructed Navy.com in an electronic mail Friday that DeFant’s reduction “was associated to the efficiency of her duties because the commanding officer.”
When requested whether or not DeFant was underneath investigation, Abrahamson stated that “the choice to alleviate any commanding officer comes after a radical overview from management within the officer’s chain of command.”
Abrahamson additionally confirmed that neither the ship’s government officer nor its high enlisted sailor was relieved alongside DeFant.
The service’s assertion supplied solely the standard comment that the service expects its commanders “to uphold the very best requirements of accountability, reliability and management, and the Navy holds them accountable after they fall in need of these requirements.”
The Navy stated that Capt. Brandon Burkett will assume the duties as commanding officer of the ship till everlasting reduction arrives, and Abrahamson stated that the ousting won’t have an effect on Lake Erie’s mission.
The Lake Erie emerged from the shipyards in December 2022 after almost two years of overhaul and upgrades to the 30-year-old ship. Based on the ship’s Fb web page, the crew has been working to get the Lake Erie mission prepared since that point. In September, the ship reported touchdown a helicopter on its flight deck for the primary time in three years.
The Navy presently plans to decommission the Lake Erie in 2025.
DeFant’s official Navy biography says that she started her profession within the service in 1991 as an enlisted sailor earlier than commissioning in 1999. Since then, she served on destroyers, cruisers and a frigate earlier than being chosen as the chief officer of the destroyer USS Paul Hamilton in 2014. She later took over as commander of the Paul Hamilton and served in that position from March 2016 to December 2017.
Based on the Navy’s assertion, DeFant will now be reassigned to the workplace of the commander for the Naval Floor Drive, U.S. Pacific Fleet.
— Konstantin Toropin might be reached at konstantin.toropin@army.com. Comply with him on X at @ktoropin.
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