Tag Archives: USS Lewis B. Puller (ESB-3)

Sailors Get Experience with Marine MV-22s Before Operating First Navy Ospreys

Sailors Get Experience with Marine MV-22s Before Operating First Navy Ospreys

A CMV-22B Osprey, attached to the Blackjack of Air Test and Evaluation Squadron Two One (HX-21), flies near the amphibious transport dock ship USS New York (LPD-21) on July 18, 2020. US Navy Photo

An overseas deployment with Marines is giving some of the Navy’s first crews that will operate its new cargo-delivery fleet of CMV-22B Osprey aircraft hands-on experience with tiltrotor technology and operations. Read More

Expeditionary Seabase USS Hershel 'Woody' Williams Deploys for AFRICOM

Expeditionary Seabase USS Hershel ‘Woody’ Williams Deploys for AFRICOM

Capt. David Gray, the military detachment officer in charge of the Military Sealift Command expeditionary sea base USS Hershel ‘Woody’ Williams (ESB-4), gives guidance and direction to Sailors while leading a training evolution aboard one of the ship’s ridged-hull inflatable boats while the ship was at anchor in the Chesapeake Bay, Sept. 15, 2019. Hershel ‘Woody’ Williams is conducting mine countermeasures equipment testing. US Navy photo.

Expeditionary Sea Base USS Hershel “Woody” Williams (ESB-4) kicked off its first deployment today, leaving Virginia for an extended deployment primarily to U.S. Africa Command. Read More

Pentagon Leaders Say Trump Tweet on Iranian Attack Boats Was 'Important Warning'

Pentagon Leaders Say Trump Tweet on Iranian Attack Boats Was ‘Important Warning’

Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN) vessels conducted unsafe and unprofessional actions against U.S. Military ships by crossing the ships’ bows and sterns at close range while operating in international waters of the North Arabian Gulf. The guided-missile destroyer USS Paul Hamilton (DDG 60) is conducting joint interoperability operations in support of maritime security in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations. US Navy photo.

The Navy’s existing policy for dealing with the small Iranian vessels prevalent in the Persian Gulf matches the sentiment of a Wednesday morning Tweet from President Donald Trump, Deputy Secretary of Defense David Norquist and Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. John Hyten said during a Wednesday media briefing. Read More

VIDEO: Iranian Attack Boats Harass U.S. Navy, Coast Guard Vessels in Persian Gulf

VIDEO: Iranian Attack Boats Harass U.S. Navy, Coast Guard Vessels in Persian Gulf

Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN) vessels conducted unsafe and unprofessional actions against U.S. Military ships by crossing the ships’ bows and sterns at close range while operating in international waters of the North Arabian Gulf. The guided-missile destroyer USS Paul Hamilton (DDG 60) is conducting joint interoperability operations in support of maritime security in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations. US Navy photo.

Nearly a dozen Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN) vessels harassed a formation of U.S. Navy and Coast Guard ships in international waters in the northern Persian Gulf, the Navy announced today. Read More

Navy Will Commission All Expeditionary Sea Bases as USS Warships

Navy Will Commission All Expeditionary Sea Bases as USS Warships

Miguel Keith (ESB-5) departs General Dynamics National Steel and Shipbuilding Co. shipyard in San Diego, Calif. During the weeklong acceptance trials, the Navy’s Board of Inspection and Survey conducted comprehensive tests to demonstrate and evaluate the performance of all of the ship’s major systems in 2019. NASSCO photo

ARLINGTON, Va. – The Navy will now commission all of its Expeditionary Sea Base ships to allow them to conduct a broader and more lethal mission set, compared to original plans for them as Military Sealift Command ships with a USNS designation. Read More

Navy Prefers Fielding 'Revolutionary' Combat Capability Through New Weapons Rather than New Hull Designs

Navy Prefers Fielding ‘Revolutionary’ Combat Capability Through New Weapons Rather than New Hull Designs

Michael Monsoor (DDG-1001) pulls along pierside in Naval Base San Diego, Dec. 7, 2018. US Navy Photo

SAN DIEGO – The Navy is striving to field “revolutionary combat capability” in new ships and through mid-life modernizations, but it can do so while keeping risk low by focusing on new weapons and systems rather than radical new hull designs, the program executive officer for ships said. Read More

Navy Wants 2 Variants Next Common Auxiliary Hull: One for People, One for Volume

Navy Wants 2 Variants Next Common Auxiliary Hull: One for People, One for Volume

The Los Angeles-class attack submarine USS Greenville (SSN 772) prepares to moor alongside the submarine tender USS Emory S. Land (AS 39), Dec. 9, 2018, near Puerto Princessa, Philippines. Emory S. Land is a forward-deployed expeditionary submarine tender on an extended deployment conducting coordinated tended moorings and afloat maintenance in the U.S. 5th and 7th Fleet areas of operations. US Navy photo.

ARLINGTON, Va. – The Navy now plans to design and field two hulls under the Common Hull Auxiliary Multi-Mission Platform (CHAMP) program, after the program office realized the five mission areas CHAMP seeks to cover fit neatly into people-centric and volume-centric categories. Read More

Top Stories 2018: U.S. Marine Corps Operations

Top Stories 2018: U.S. Marine Corps Operations

An F-35B Lightning II assigned to the “Avengers” of Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 211 sits on the flight deck of the Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Essex (LHD 2) on March 7, 2018. US Navy Photo

USNI News polled its writers, naval analysts and service members on what they consider the most important military and maritime stories in 2018. This story is part of a series; please also see U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Navy Operations.

The Marine Corps spent 2018 preparing the force for a new era of warfare, modernizing how it conducts its business in ways large and small. Read More

Marines See Future for Special Purpose MAGTFs Even As Ship Count Rises

Marines See Future for Special Purpose MAGTFs Even As Ship Count Rises

Landing Support Specialists with Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force-Crisis Response-Africa conduct helicopter support team drills with an MV-22B Osprey at Morón Air Base, Spain, Oct. 4, 2017. SPMAGTF-CR-AF deployed to conduct limited crises-response and theatre-security operation in Europe and North Africa. US Marine Corps photo.

THE PENTAGON – The Marine Corps may have expanded its use of ground-based Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Forces (SP-MAGTFs) in response to a shortage of amphibious ships to carry Marines around the globe, but Marine Corps leadership says the service is committed to these units even as the number of available amphibious ships is rising. Read More

Crisis Response Marines in Middle East Focused on Operations in Syria, Afghanistan

Crisis Response Marines in Middle East Focused on Operations in Syria, Afghanistan

U.S. Marines with 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force – Crisis Response – Central Command train in Jordan on Feb. 26, 2018. US Marine Corps Photo

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Marine Corps’ Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF) Crisis Response force in U.S. Central Command is becoming increasingly distributed across the Middle East as its role evolves, but it is gaining additional aircraft and a ship it can call upon to help support its vastly spread out operations. Read More