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The USS Bataan extended its deployment last year and sailed to the Red Sea to combat the Houthis.
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The US amphibious assault ship joined a fight largely aimed at other ships, a senior officer said.
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The Bataan is currently in New York City this week as part of Fleet Week 2024.
When war broke out between Israel and Hamas and the Iranian-backed Houthis began terrorizing commercial ships, the US Navy warship USS Bataan changed its plans and advanced at “best speed” into the Red Sea.
That move accompanied an unexpected extension of its deployment and thrust the Bataan, an amphibious assault ship, into a fight largely aimed at other warships such as aircraft carriers, destroyers and cruisers, a senior official told Business Insider.
Now, a few months after the Bataan finally returned home, the warship is docked in New York City for Fleet Week 2024, allowing the public a rare opportunity to meet its sailors and Marines.
Aboard the Bataan on Wednesday afternoon, U.S. Fleet Forces Command leader Admiral Darryl Caudle praised the ship’s deployment, especially its actions in the Red Sea.
Eight and a half months, he said, is “a long time to be away from home, your families and conducting business on behalf of the Navy and our nation. And I think I would characterize what they did as remarkable. ” Caudle added that he was recently informed about the deployment.
Bataan arrived in the Arabian Gulf in August, where she was expected to spend the entire period of her deployment, but when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, the large-deck amphibian booked her to Kuwait, picking up Marines and then sailing “at better speed” towards the Red Sea, where Bataan remained until the end of the year.
“At the end of the day, we were there [for] presence operations, but we were also launching AV-8s to intercept KAS-4s that were in the air, and in some cases we were in a position to fire self-defense rounds,” said Captain Trace Head, the ship’s executive officer, referring to the vessel’s Harrier jump jets and a type of Iranian-made drone.
Head explained that the Houthis were “not necessarily shooting” at Bataan, but rather at Israel and commercial ships transiting the Red Sea, “but we were in the trajectory of those missiles to where we could shoot at them.”
The Bataan’s role was deterrence, but he said that “largely, that mission is a destroyer/cruiser mission, where they fire their surface-to-air missiles, and they are much better prepared for that.”
US Navy destroyers like the USS Carney and USS Gravely have, for example, been on the front lines of the fight against the Houthi, shooting down dozens of threats in recent months. When the Pentagon decided to keep the Bataan in the Red Sea for a period, there were at least three destroyers with guided missiles in the area. Amphibious assault ships are highly versatile and bring different capabilities to combat.
The Bataan was involved in retaliatory airstrikes against Houthi forces in Yemen in January, according to a BBC report.
Some of Bataan’s different aircraft were on display at Fleet Week, including AV-8B Harrier II attack aircraft, MV-22B Osprey assault support tiltrotors and Super Cobra attack helicopters. The Bataan is armed with a few weapons systems, including two RIM-7 Sea Sparrow anti-aircraft missile launchers.
Perhaps the most notable feature of this amphibious assault ship is its deck, which allows boats and other watercraft to dock on the ship. It also allows the Bataan to load land vehicles, such as battle tanks and armored personnel carriers, onto water vehicles to be taken to shore.
Marine Forces Command leader Lt. Gen. Brian Cavanaugh told BI that having the Bataan, as well as other elements of the amphibious readiness group, in the Red Sea at the time sent “a signal.”
“It’s a big deterrent,” he explained, saying “there’s a lot of lethality on the ship, so we can punch someone in the face if we need to, in the name of the nation.”
Aboard Bataan at Fleet Week New York, Petty Officer 2nd Class Bradley Rickard told BI that the sudden reassignment was “very surprising,” but they adapted, highlighting the crew’s flexibility.
“Much of the deployment was not what the crew initially expected,” he said, “but we were ready to answer the call. We went and accomplished our mission in the areas we were asked to be there.”
Read the original article at Business Insider
