Navy Will Commission All Expeditionary Sea Bases as USS Warships
By: Megan Eckstein
January 21, 2020 6:16 AM
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.
The USS warship designation will now allow these platforms to move beyond transporting special forces, mine countermeasures teams or Marines to actually employing their lethal capabilities – pushing SOF teams ashore for operations, blowing up a mine in the water, launching helicopters for strikes, and more.
The Navy originally planned to operate the ships as USNS support ships under MSC, with the ability to temporarily commission them as warships if needed for a specific operation. When USS Lewis B. “Chesty†Puller (ESB-3) deployed to U.S. 5th Fleet in 2017, the Navy decided to commission that one seabase as a warship while en route to the Middle East due to expected missions and conditions in that particular region.
https://news.usni.org/2020/01/21/navy-will-commission-all-expeditionary-sea-bases-as-uss-warships
