Welcome to the CavasShips Podcast with Christopher P. Cavas and Chris Servello…a weekly podcast looking at naval and maritime events and issues of the day – in the US, across the seas and around the world. This week…Bryan Clark of the Hudson Institute joins us to discuss his recent report on using unmanned forces to hedge against emerging challenges and threats.
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This Week’s Naval Round Up:
The aircraft carrier USS CARL VINSON returned to San Diego February 23rd, just over four months since beginning a western Pacific deployment on October 12. It’s thought the unusually short deployment with Carrier Air Wing Two is a move to keep adversaries off balance. The cruiser PRINCETON and destroyer STERETT of the Vinson group also returned to San Diego, but on February 21 ahead of the carrier. The Pacific-based carrier USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT remains deployed in the western Pacific, while the Atlantic-based carrier USS DWIGHT D EISENHOWER remains on station in the Red Sea region.
The cruiser USS CHOSIN returned to San Diego on February 16, the first time since 2017 the ship has been underway on her own power. CHOSIN was one of seven cruisers inducted into a US Navy Cruiser Phased Modernization Program, and the ship spent six years under refit and modernization at Vigor Shipyard in Seattle, Washington. The CHOSIN will apparently become only the second of the 7 to reenter service, following last year’s redelivery of the GETTYSBURG from BAE Systems Norfolk. Two cruisers in the program, HUE CITY and ANZIO, were decommissioned and stricken for disposal, while work on two more, the COWPENS and VICKSBURG, appears to have stopped short of completion. The future of the seventh ship, CAPE SAINT GEORGE, also remains in doubt.
In new ship news, the new Virginia-class attack submarine MASSACHUSETTS SSN798 was launched February 17 at Newport News Shipbuilding. MASSACHUSETTS is the 25th Virginia-class sub and will become the 12th of the class delivered from the Virginia shipyard.
And the expeditionary sea base ship USS JOHN L CANLEY was commissioned February 17 in a ceremony at San Diego’s North Island Naval Air Station.
