Navy Modernizes Amphibious Ships and Hovercraft
Invisible to approximately 5,000 people witnessing the USS Mesa Verde (LPD 19) commissioning ceremony, Dec. 15, a newly modernized landing craft air cushion (LCAC) 39 sat certified and ready for transport within the well deck of the Navy's newest amphibious ship. Mesa Verde had already finished its requisite LCAC certification Dec. 7, which qualify the ship to recover an LCAC and embark on the ship's mission of transporting Marines, their supplies, and equipment, according to Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Panama City Division Project Engineer Rhett Plash. Plash works with NSWC PCD LCAC in-service engineering activity and operations. "We're actually a part of the team that performs well deck certifications," Plash said.
Russian Tanker Stopped For Suspected Smuggling
A Russian tanker was intercepted in the Gulf on Thursday on suspicion of smuggling Iraqi oil in defiance of U.N. sanctions, a U.S. admiral said. The Akademik Pustovoyt was boarded in the southern Gulf by a team of Americans who took oil samples for analysis to see if the fuel was from Iraq, said Vice Admiral Charles Moore. He coordinates an international force patrolling the area and commands the U.S. Navy's Manama, Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet. The force from 18 countries that patrols the Gulf to catch smugglers of Iraqi oil had boarded the ship four times in the past couple of months, but it had not been detained previously "for a variety of reasons," Moore said. U.N. sanctions were imposed on Iraq after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
