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…there have been numerous events, hearings and meetings discussing naval issues over the last few weeks–Vago Muradian joins us to highlight key takeaways from recent headlines, and we’ll have some parting thoughts from the latest Sea-Air-Space symposium.
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This Week’s Naval Round Up:
All assets to build and operate a US-sponsored pier in Gaza are in place, US officials said April 25. While at least two of the ships that left the US with gear for the pier suffered delays en route, the officials said there was enough redundancy in the shipments that the delays had absolutely no impact. Everything is on track, officials said, for the pier to begin operations in May.
France’s carrier CHARLES DE GAULLE left the naval base at Toulon April 22 for an operational deployment named AKILA. The carrier and her strike group will initially operate in the eastern Mediterranean and, for the first time, will be under Strike Force NATO command.
The aircraft carrier USS GEORGE WASHINGTON bid farewell to Norfolk, Virginia April 25 as she began a transit around Latin America that eventually will see GW transfer homeport to Yokosuka, Japan. GEORGE WASHINGTON was on the US east coast for nine years, including six years in a protracted reactor refueling and modernization overhaul at HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding. For the transit around Latin America, known as Operation Southern Seas, GEORGE WASHINGTON will be accompanied by the destroyer PORTER and oiler USNS JOHN LENTHALL, with units of Carrier Air Wing Seven aboard the carrier. USS RONALD REAGAN, who relieved GW as the US Navy’s forward-deployed carrier Japan in 2015, is expected to leave Yokosuka shortly to head to San Diego, where the two carriers will formally handover, after which GEORGE WASHINGTON will continue to Japan and RONALD REAGAN will begin a maintenance period on the US West Coast.
A newly-cleared shipping channel in Baltimore, Maryland opened for full-sized merchant ships April 25, with the bulker BALSA 94 the first of four large vessels that day to pass through a newly-cleared channel through the debris of the fallen Francis Scott Key bridge. Clearing operations are continuing under the direction of the US Navy’s Supervisor of Salvage.
In new ship news, the US Coast Guard commissioned the new national security cutter CALHOUN, WMSL 759, April 20 at her homeport of Charleston, South Carolina. CALHOUN is the 10th and penultimate NSC, with the last in the class, FRIEDMAN, under construction at HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding.
The Virginia-class submarine NEW JERSEY SSN 796 was delivered to the US Navy April 25, the US Navy announced. NEW JERSEY is the 23rd Virginia-class sub and the 11th delivered from HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding. The submarine is to be commissioned on September 14.
And in San Diego, a keel ceremony was held April 25 at GD NASSCO for the new expeditionary sea base ship HECTOR A. CAFFERATA JR., ESB 8. The ship is the sixth ESB, all built at GD NASSCO. The most recent ship ROBERT E SIMANEK is to be christened on May 4.
And in old ship news, US Coast Guard patrol cutter ORCAS WPB1327 was decommissioned at Coos Bay, Oregon April 22 after a 35-year career. She was built in just a year in 1988-89 and at the time expected to serve between 12 and 15 years. Of 49 cutters in the original class, only seven remain in commission, and most of those who have been decommissioned continue to serve under friendly foreign flags.
