Posted on 06/23/2007 6:01:56 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) The U.S. Navy ship bearing the name of New Jersey's capital city now goes by the Sanskrit word for ``hippopotamus.''
The USS Trenton officially became the INS Jalashwa of the Indian navy during a Friday ceremony at the Norfolk Naval Station in Norfolk, Va.
It's the first time India has purchased a U.S. Navy ship, according to Ronen Sen, India's ambassador to the United States.
A 570-foot-long Austin-class amphibious transport dock designed to land Marines, the former USS Trenton fills a need in the Indian navy for a large amphibious ship, Commodore P. Murugesan, the Indian Embassy's naval attache, told The Times of India.
When Indian navy vessels sought to bring relief to coastal areas in the aftermath of the December 2004 tsunami, they found jetties and piers broken.
India plans to station the ship off the country's east coast.
The U.S. Navy launched the USS Trenton 1968, and commissioned it in 1971. The latest in a line of ships named after the New Jersey city, the USS Trenton aided with evacuations from Somalia in 1991, Liberia in 1996 and Lebanon last year.
With the ship going to India, the city of Trenton is getting back the silver set it donated for the ship's commanding officer, as well as other memorabilia.
The city would be able to arrange with the Naval Historical Society in Washington, D.C., to receive the ship's bell on loan, according to society spokesman Jack Green.
I knew this sounded familiar... looks like the deal is done now.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1711023/posts
Cool!
Guess they’ll be serving up curry and keema mutter instead of hotdogs and gravy in the mess.
Bump
“It’s the first time India has purchased a U.S. Navy ship, according to Ronen Sen, India’s ambassador to the United States.”
Good news BUMP. It makes a lot of sense that India is getting into more military collaboration with the US. With increasingly belligerent China and Russia and several islamofascist states in the neighborhood (Pakistan, B-desh, and Iran), it only makes sense that USA, India, and Israel strive for closer military and socio-political ties.
USS TRENTON was the eleventh ship in the AUSTIN - class of Amphibious Transport Docks and the third ship in the Navy to bear the name. TRENTON was decommissioned on January 17, 2007, at Norfolk, Va., and transfered to the Indian Navy. The TRENTON was recommissioned as INS JALASHWA at Norfolk, Va., the same day.
Commissioned in March 1971, TRENTON took part in numerous humanitarian operations, including the evacuations of American civilians from Liberia in 1996 and from Lebanon in 2006. In addition, in 1991, TRENTON was responsible for evacuating the U.S. and Soviet ambassadors and 193 foreign nationals from Somalia. During her final deployment in 2006, the ship took part in maritime security operations off the Somali coast of eastern Africa.
General Characteristics:
Awarded: May 17, 1965
Keel laid: August 8, 1966
Launched: August 3, 1968
Commissioned: March 6, 1971
Decommissioned: January 17, 2007
Builder: Lockheed Shipbuilding Co., Seattle, Wash.
Propulsion system: two boilers, two steam turbines
Propellers: two
Length: 569 feet (173.4 meters)
Beam: 105 feet (32 meters)
Draft: 23 feet (7 meters)
ballasted: 34 feet (10.4 meters)
Displacement: approx. 16,900 tons
Speed: 21 knots
Well deck capacity: one LCAC or one LCU or four LCM-8 or nine LCM-6 or 24 amphibious assault vehicles (AAV)
Aircraft: none, but telescopic hangar installed aboard. The hangar is not used to accommodate helicopters but on the flight deck there is space for up to six CH-46 helicopters.
Crew: Ship: 24 officers, 396 enlisted
Marine Detachment: approx. 900
Armament: two 20mm Phalanx CIWS, two 25mm Mk 38 guns, eight .50-calibre machine guns
Great! Now, can our Subcontinental friends do us a favor and TAKE CONTROL OF THE CITY OF TRENTON? I mean, it already abuts the Route One corridor (home to the largest concentration of Indians i the United States), and turning it into Bangalore would be an improvement!
>With the ship going to India, the city of Trenton is getting back the silver set it donated
Cute.
LOL
The Trenton has quite a history, In the early hours 17 January 1977, an LCM(6) from the Trenton, carrying marines and sailors back from shore leave, collided with a merchant vessel which was entering the port, and capsized. Forty-nine servicemen were killed in the accident. Shortly afterwards a small monument was erected nearby. The memorial reads;
“In memory of the members of the US Navy and US Marine Corps serving on the USS Guam and the USS Trenton who perished in this port on 17 January 1977, and in gratitude to the citizens, officials and rescue teams of Barcelona for their cooperation with the US Forces”.
I hear they bought it because it has a Double Syrup Slushie Machine....
Because of China’s intense build-up of its naval forces, India has seen fit to expand its navy. Since as a local force, it would be advantageous to the US for India to assert its naval authority in this regard, I think another ship transfer is in order.
That is, the US should sell India the now-being-mothballed USS Kennedy aircraft carrier.
To start with, while the Kennedy is obsolete by US standards, it is still a far more potent aircraft carrier than China will be able to float in the next 10 or more years, though they are desperate to do so.
By providing the ship to India, they will be able to both restore it to a ship of the line, and be able to reverse engineer it, allowing them to leapfrog Chinese aircraft carrier development by 20 years, at a tremendous cost savings that they can use to improve their navy elsewhere.
Both the Kennedy and any derivative ships will provide a local and permanent distraction to the Chinese navy, whose most likely reaction will be to commit enormous sums of money and effort to develop comparable ships, and at the expense of the rest of their military build-up.
So instead of China using its resources with the intent of confronting the US navy in the far future, it will have to spend far more resources having to confront a lower technological opponent, in the nearer future.
Which will significantly aid the US navy in its development.
That’s an old photo. She still has 3”/50 mounts.
LPD bump. LPD-8 USS DUBUQUE, LPD-10 USS JUNEAU
Too bad we can’t get them to take the actual city named Trenton, or the vacant Lott named Trenton, for that matter.
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