The United States Navy has utilized dock landing ship USS Ashland in the Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) exercise with the Philippine Navy here that opened Thursday and to end on Monday.
It is the second American ship, after USS John McCain, that participated in the CARAT exercise.
Docked at the Alava wharf in the Subic Bay Freeport, the 22-year old ship has on board 400 U.S. Marines and 274 Navy crews. It can cruise at a speed of 20 knots.
“The purpose of USS Ashland is to embark U.S. Marines and their vehicles as well as amphibious craft that take the men and their vehicles to the beach for any mission,” said Lieutenant Commander Dan Duhan, ship executive officer.
He said that the ship’s armament is primarily for self-defense having a flight deck for helicopters and well deck for amphibious assault vehicles, hovercraft, air cushion craft, personnel transport modules (PTM), among some other equipment.
The hovercraft can take 15 combat men while the PTM can carry 120 soldiers.
This is the first time the ship has its port call in the
Duhan said some members of the Philippines Marines are on board to take part in the exercise and land in the beach with their American counterpart.
“They will exchange technique and learn from each other,” the officer said.
“On the navy side, we will do some underway events, do maneuvers at sea, weapons system, coordination of ships with the Philippine Navy,” Duhan said.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=657906
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.