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…September 15 marks three years since the historic AUKUS partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States was announced. There has been no shortage of pronouncements from senior leaders of all three countries about the agreement’s progress and potential, we don’t hear much about what the program looks like from Down Under. On today’s podcast we’ll talk with Brisbane, Australia-based journalist Alex Luck about how Aussies themselves feel about the agreement – its cost, the implications and their country’s commitment over the long haul.
Please send us feedback by DM’ing @CavasShips or @CSSProvision or you can email chriscavas@gmail.com or cservello@defaeroreport.com.
This Week’s Naval News:
The Canadian frigate MONTREAL carried out a Taiwan Strait transit on July 31. China protested, accusing Canada of quote, “hyping up” the transit. MONTREAL last made the transit in June 2023, and the Canadian frigate OTTAWA also transited the Taiwan Strait last November, it was the fourth announced surface passage in 2024 by US, Canadian or Australian warships. MONTREAL continued to Manila in the Philippines where she joined with the US cruiser LAKE ERIE, Filipino frigates JOSE RIZAL and RAMON ALCARAZ and Australian forces in what was called a Multilateral Maritime Cooperation Activity exercise in the Philippine Exclusive Economic Zone in the South China Sea on August 7 and 8. According to our colleague Mallory Shelbourne of USNI News, who is embarked aboard the MONTREAL, Chinese warships closely shadowed the allied ships and attempted to obstruct their passage.
The carrier USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN, who deployed to the Western Pacific from San Diego in mid-July, was ordered on August 2nd to head to the Middle East and relieve the USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT carrier strike group in US Central Command. TR deployed in January and is nearing the end of her scheduled cruise. At last report, LINCOLN had just left Guam and is still in the Western Pacific. It is not clear how the turnover will be handled – – whether the two carriers will meet up, or ROOSEVELT could head for home before LINCOLN takes up Operation Prosperity Guardian duties. Carrier Air Wing Nine is aboard the LINCOLN, while Carrier Air Wing Eleven is operating from ROOSEVELT. The Pentagon, while announcing the LINCOLN’s redeployment, also said additional US warships and aircraft would be sent to the Mideast but did not name the ships involved.
This podcast also learned this week that the LINCOLN’s Carrier Strike Group is the first to deploy on purpose without a cruiser acting in the carrier’s Air Warfare Commander role. A Flight IIA Arleigh Burke destroyer, USS FRANK E PETERSEN JR (DDG 121), was tapped for the role some time earlier, and for the purpose the ship now is commanded by an officer with the rank of captain rather than a commander, increasing the seniority and experience of the ship’s officers. The move comes as the number of cruisers remaining in service no longer can support maintaining the previous policy of assigning a cruiser to each carrier strike group for the important air warfare commander role. The previous group to deploy, that of the THEODORE ROOSEVELT, was to have had the cruiser LAKE ERIE assigned, but the cruiser was unable to meet the mid-January deployment date and was left behind, with the destroyer USS DANIEL INOUYE filling in for the AWC role. LAKE ERIE subsequently deployed from San Diego as an independent deployer. All cruisers now in service are to be decommissioned by 2027, replaced by Flight III Arleigh Burke-class destroyers. But only one Flight III is in commission, and that ship’s new combat system is still undergoing trials and development, and is not expected to be fully operational at least until 2026. We’ll discuss this issue a bit more towards the end of this podcast.
A three-ship Chinese naval task group arrived at Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, July 24 for exercises with the Tanzanian military. The Peace Unity 2024 task group consists of the Type 052D destroyer HEFEI and Type 071 amphibious ships WUZHISHAN and QILIANSHAN, along with a Chinese air force Y-20 transport aircraft. It’s the first time Type 071 ships have deployed to Africa for exercises. The Tanzanian portion of the exercises wrapped up on August 5 and the ships proceeded to Mozambique where exercises began on August 6.
In old ship news, the cruiser USS VICKSBURG was officially decommissioned and stricken for disposal on July 26, having held a decommissioning ceremony in late June. The ship had not deployed since 2015, and the Navy spent at least $600 million trying to upgrade and refit the ship. Those efforts were finally ended earlier this year, and the ship now will be used for spare parts. Three more cruisers are to be decommissioned before the end of September of this year.
In new ship news, the Freedom-class littoral combat ship USS NANTUCKET (LCS 27) was delivered to the Navy from Lockheed Martin on July 29th. Built at Fincantieri Marinette Marine Group in Marinette, Wisconsin, the NANTUCKET will be homeported at Mayport, Florida. Only two more Freedom-class littoral combat ships remain to be delivered.
And the expeditionary fast transport POINT LOMA (T-EPF 15) is to be christened August 10th at Austal USA in Mobile, Alabama. The Flight II Spearhead-class ship will be configured to operate as a regular fast transport or with an enhanced medical capability able to support 147 medical patients.
