While much of the world’s attention is focused on the Ukraine, the Navy has wrapped up a major exercise in the Pacific Ocean involving San Diego-based ships.
The Navy released a photo this week showing two San Diego-based warships maneuvering in the Philippine Sea with one of the Navy’s most unusual new vesels.
The photo shows the amphibious assault ship USS Essex, it’s flight deck crowed with helicopters, tiltrotors and F-35C stealth jets, maneuvering with the guided-missile cruiser USS Mobile Bay and the new expeditionary sea base USS Miguel Keith.
The last of the three ships was built by NASSCO in Barrio Logan and commissioned in 2021. It’s homeported in the Mariana Islands and serves as a floating Marine base with a large deck for helicopters and tiltrotors to land.
The ships were participating in Noble Fusion, an exercise from Feb. 3 to 7 that included units of the U.S. Navy, Marines and Air Force along with the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force.
The exercise was led by the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, and ranged from the Luzon Strait to the Miyako Strait and the East China Sea, encompassing a wide swath of the First Island Chain, including littoral areas in the vicinity of Okinawa.
The Navy said the intent was to show how the United States and its allies can “rapidly aggregate as a combat force to conduct lethal sea-denial operations, seize key maritime terrain, guarantee freedom of movement, and create all-domain advantage” in case of war in the Pacific.
“The exercise was about using the sea as maneuver space to achieve positional advantage. It was about exercising our ability to maneuver critical capability to locations in the time and space of our choosing,” said Brig. Gen. Kyle Ellison, commander of the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Brigade.