SAN DIEGO — The San Diego-based littoral fight ship Canberra will journey to Australia this summer time the place it’s going to change into the primary American warship to be commissioned in an allied nation, in line with the Navy.
The commissioning will happen on July 22 on the Royal Australian Navy Fleet Base East in Sydney. It should mark the second when the Canberra turns into an energetic member of the American fleet.
The ceremony additionally represents the outgrowth of an extended, fruitful and deepening relationship between the 2 international locations that goes again a long time.
Throughout World Battle II, Australia served as a ahead working base for U.S forces within the Pacific. The belongings included a newly-built American cruiser that was named after Canberra, the capital of Australia.
Canberra helped win many fights throughout the warfare, together with the Battle of the Philippine Sea. The cruiser was taken out of service late within the warfare however was later recommissioned and have become one of many American ships that was despatched to blockade Cuba in 1962 after a spy airplane revealed that the Soviet Union had positioned nuclear missiles on the island.
Later within the Sixties, Canberra deployed to Vietnam 5 instances from its homeport in San Diego. The ship was decommissioned for a second and closing time in 1970.
The shut ties between the U.S. and Australia have surfaced many instances through the years. That relationship was on public show in March when President Joe Biden and the prime ministers of Australia and the UK met in San Diego to announce that they might collectively work to supply Australia with extra submarines. The trouble is supposed to counter a army build-up by China within the Indo-Pacific.
“I can consider no higher solution to signify our enduring partnership with Australia than celebrating the latest U.S. Navy warship named for Australia’s capital metropolis,” Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro mentioned final week.
Design-wise, new littoral fight ship, or LCS, has little in frequent with its predecessor.
The primary Canberra was a 673-foot Baltimore-class cruiser that originally featured an array of highly effective 8-inch weapons, making the closely crewed ship a front-line combatant. The brand new Canberra is a 418-foot Independence-class trimaran vessel that’s comparatively flippantly armed and is operated by a small crew on specialised missions in near-shore and open-ocean waters, usually by itself.
San Diego is presently dwelling to greater than a dozen LCS vessels.
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