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…US Navy surface force issues were front and center at the recent Surface Navy Association waterfront event in San Diego. SNA executive director Chris Bushnell is here with some of his impressions. And the US Navy’s Military Sealift Command is planning to cut up to 17 ships to ease a manning crisis. Sam LaGrone of USNI News, who broke the story, will join us.
This Week’s Naval News:
Carrier ABRAHAM LINCOLN was on station in US Central Command by August 21st, the Pentagon said, taking up Operation Prosperity Guardian duties to protect merchant shipping in the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea areas. Destroyers SPRUANCE and FRANK E PETERSEN JR are with the LINCOLN, which is operating Carrier Air Wing Nine. The carrier THEODORE ROOSEVELT also continues to operate in the Persian Gulf area. The Pentagon added that the missile submarine USS GEORGIA also is on station in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, joining the WASP Amphibious Ready Group and an estimated three US destroyers. Tensions throughout the Middle East remain high but so far, Iran has yet to attack Israel in retaliation for the Israeli assassination of a Hamas official in Iran.
US destroyer RALPH JOHNSON carried out a Taiwan Strait transit on August 22nd, three weeks after a similar transit by the Canadian frigate MONTREAL. It’s the fifth surface transit of the year for the US and Canadian navies. China, as usual, protested the move, saying the U.S. quote, “hyped it up.”
The Italian Navy aircraft carrier CAVOUR with the frigate ALPINO operated in the Philippine Sea from August 18 through the 21st accompanied by the US destroyer DEWEY. Afterwards the Italian ships arrived at Yokosuka, Japan on August 22rd, part of what the Italian government says is a new era in the strategic partnership between Italy and Japan. The deployment marks the first time the Italian Navy has operated an aircraft carrier in the Pacific region. CAVOUR is carrying a mixed air wing of Harrier jets and F-35B Lightning II strike fighters. In another demonstration of a European power expressing naval interest in the region, the German frigate BADEN-WURTTEMBERG also arrived at Yokosuka on the 22nd, part of an around the world cruise by the German Navy.
The USS HAWAII arrived at the Australian Navy’s Fleet Base West in western Australia on August 22 where the Virginia-class submarine is to undergo a maintenance period carried out by a mixed US-Australian engineering team. The overhaul, a facet of the larger AUKUS strategic agreement between the two countries and Great Britain, will be carried out alongside the US Navy submarine tender EMORY S. LAND.
The Russian cruiser VARYAG and destroyer MARSHAL SHAPOSHNIKOV returned to their homeport of Vladivostok August 23rd, concluding a seven-month deployment to the Middle East and Mediterranean areas. The ships left their Pacific Fleet homeport in mid-January. The ships conducted several exercises with foreign navies, including China and Iran. VARYAG is one of the Russian Navy’s two remaining Slava-class missile cruisers after a third ship, the MOSVKA was sunk in 2022 in the Baltic Sea by Ukrainian forces.
The US Coast Guard icebreaker HEALY returned to its homeport of Seattle August 16th, cutting short an Arctic deployment that was to have lasted months longer. The HEALY left Seattle on June 12th for its annual summer-fall arctic cruiser but on July 25, while underway in the Chukchi Sea, an electrical transformer fire caused the loss of one of the ship’s two main propulsion motors. While the fire was quickly extinguished and no crew members were injured, the ship was unable to continue its mission. The HEALY suffered a similar electrical fire in 2020 that resulted in the complete replacement of one its two main propulsion engines. Meanwhile, China – for the first time – deployed three icebreaking vessels over the summer to the region. Like the HEALY, all are said to be on scientific missions.
Manning shortages among civilian mariners are leading the US Navy to propose inactivating 17 ships of the Military Sealift Command, USNI News reported August 22nd. The plan, which the Navy said had not yet been approved, aims to reduce the number of seagoing billets in an effort to improve the lifestyle of the 4,500 civilian mariners – or CIVMARS – crewing MSC’s more than 120 ships. Among the ships that could be placed in reserve are two large ESB expeditionary seabase ships, two T-AKE dry cargo supply, a T-AO fleet oiler, and all 12 active T-EPF expeditionary fast transports. Such a move could eliminate up to 700 CIVMAR billets. We’ll have more later in this podcast from USNI News editor Sam LaGrone, who broke the story.
