USS Mount Whitney (LCC-20)

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USS Mount Whitney (LCC-20) in the Mediterranean in 2005
USS Mount Whitney (LCC-20) in the Mediterranean in 2005
Overview
Type Command ship
Keel laying January 8, 1969
Launch January 8, 1970
1. Period of service flag
period of service

since January 16, 1971

home port Gaeta , Italy
Technical specifications
displacement

19,290  ts

length

189 m

width

33 m

Draft

8.2 m

crew

170 Navy members, 155 Civilian (MSC)
staff of the 6th Fleet

drive

2 boilers, a geared turbine
22,000 HP on one shaft

speed

23 knots

Range

13,000 nautical miles

Armament

2 × 20 mm phalanx CIWS

The USS Mount Whitney (LCC-20) is an amphibious warfare command ship for the United States Navy and the second Blue Ridge- class ship . She is named after Mount Whitney and has served in the US Navy since 1971, and the ship has been part of the Military Sealift Command since 2004 . It is based in Gaeta , Italy and serves as the flagship of the commander of the US 6th Fleet .

technology

The hull of the Blue Ridge class is based on the amphibious assault ships of the Iwo Jima class , with which they also share the propulsion system with an output of 16,181  kW . However, the hull was slightly lengthened to 189 meters, and wide side decks were added to accommodate sideboats and landing boats. The ships have a large helipad on the aft deck, and there are numerous antennas and radar systems on the upper deck. Amidships is the bridge structure with the Mack and the main radar systems, behind it a single free-standing electronic mast. The ship was originally armed with two 3-inch twin guns, in 1974 two Sea Sparrow launchers were installed. Two Phalanx CIWS have been on board for close-range defense since the 1980s , the guns and the guided missile launchers were removed in 1992.

history

Development and construction

The construction of the second ship of the Blue Ridge class was decided on August 10, 1966, the keel-laying took place on January 8, 1969 at Newport News Shipbuilding in Newport News , Virginia . Exactly one year later it was launched; on January 16, 1971, the ship was then put into service with the US Navy. The pure shipyard cost of Mount Whitney was $ 36.4 million.

commitment

Based in Norfolk , Virginia , Mount Whitney operated with the 2nd US Fleet in the Atlantic. First trips in 1971 took her to the North Sea, in 1973 she was in the Mediterranean during the Yom Kippur War . In the seventies and eighties, the ship also took part in several rescue missions and search operations in the Atlantic. In 1989 she was the host ship during a Soviet delegation's first visit to Norfolk.

In 1994 she was the flagship of Operation Uphold Democracy off Haiti. In 1999 she replaced the La Salle as the command ship of the 6th US fleet in the Mediterranean and was stationed in Gaeta. The Mount Whitney was during the Kosovo war and the Operation Iraqi Freedom is a central element of the command structure of the US armed forces. In 2004 the Military Sealift Command officially took over command of the ship, the previously purely military crew was drastically reduced in size and partly replaced by civilian employees of the MSC. In February 2005 she finally replaced the La Salle from her role as the flagship of the 6th fleet in the Mediterranean. After the end of the Russo-Georgian war in the South Caucasus in August 2008, the Mount Whitney was sent to the Black Sea in early September 2008 to bring humanitarian aid to Georgia. The first such delivery, which went to Poti , was received extremely critically by Russia.

From March 2011, the Mount Whitney sailed off the coast of the North African country during the civil war in Libya .

In February 2014, the Mount Whitney was moved to the Black Sea together with the Ramage in order to hold a total of 600 marines ready for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi .

She served as the command ship in 2018 in the NATO major maneuver "Trident Juncture 18" off the coast of Norway and in 2019 in the BALTOPS maneuver off Schleswig-Holstein in 2019 .

Web links

Commons : USS Mount Whitney (LCC-20)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Stefan Terzibaschitsch : Sea power USA . Bechtermünz Verlag, Augsburg 1997, ISBN 3-86047-576-2 . P. 550
  2. ^ Terzibaschitsch: Sea power USA . P. 551.
  3. ↑ US warship docks in Poti . Spiegel Online . September 5, 2008. Retrieved March 5, 2011.
  4. ↑ Missiles, torpedoes and an embarrassing incident. In: tagesanzeiger.ch, February 3, 2014, accessed February 4, 2014
  5. ↑ https://bazonline.ch/ausland/europa/russische-tupolew-ueberfliegt-kommandoschiff-von-natomanoever/story/13272093
  6. ^ Sea maneuvers - aircraft carrier moored in Kiel. , NDR from June 5, 2019, accessed on June 6, 2019