BETHESDA, Md. – The Navy’s newest medical ship will be named after Bethesda, the Maryland home of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro officially announced Monday. The future USNS Bethesda (T-EMS-1) is the lead ship in the Bethesda-class Expeditionary Medical Ship class. The expeditionary medical ships are meant to be able to help stabilize and treat patients over vast distances, a key feature of Navy Medicine’s future in the Indo-Pacific region.
The Navy needs to “bring as much logistical support to the Pacific as we possibly can,” Del Toro told USNI News following the ceremony.
The ship is like an ambulance ship, Navy Surgeon General Rear Adm. Darin Via told USNI News in an interview following the naming ceremony.
“These ships are designed to provide again, that ongoing surgical stabilization in what I call force preservation, which is prevention of injury and illness, to take care of medical conditions, and then either be able to return them back to their ships or back to their duty to be able to put them on a land base location, or to be able to be moved to another ship. If that’s what they need to move out of theater,” Via said.
The Expeditionary Medical Ship is one way Navy Medicine’s focus is shifting to the Indo-Pacific region, where the ability to care for patients over vast distances is a primary need.
“The easiest way for me to put it for you is, is if I were to put a map up of the world, and I took the continental United States, I could lie in the continental United States up three times to get you from California all the way over to the eastern East China Sea or the South China Sea,” Via said.
Bethesda is one of three Expeditionary Medical Ships ordered by the Navy. One of the other two is named after Balboa Naval Hospital, while the third ship is not yet named.
The three ships are being built by Austal USA. The Navy awarded the Alabama-based shipbuilder a contract of about $867 million to build the ships.
The ships are also smaller than the two hospital ships currently in the Navy, USNS Comfort and USNS Mercy, Del Toro told USNI News. That allows these EMS to go to shallower ports. They can also go fast while continuing to provide care, which is helpful when it comes to the treatment of patients.
“That’s the beauty of the Expeditionary Medical Ship,” Del Toro said.
While the ships are first planned for the Pacific, Del Toro said he can also see the ships going to South America, similar to how Comfort goes to the region as part of the Navy’s medical partnerships.
“This ship—as well as all of the Bethesda-class expeditionary medical ships—is designed to provide hospital-level care in austere environments, and will serve not just our Sailors and Marines, but offer assistance and comfort to our allies and partners around the globe in times of need,” Del Toro said in his speech.
