The United States Sixth Fleet’s dock landing ship USS Fort McHenry, along with members of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, launched its voyage to the Black Sea through the Dardanelles Strait, the U.S. Naval Forces Europe/Africa reported on Jan. 6.
“USS Fort McHenry’s transit… reaffirms our collective resolve to Black Sea security and enhances our strong relationships with our NATO allies and partners in the region,” said Vice Adm. Lisa Franchetti, commander of the U.S. Sixth Fleet.
“Our routine operations in the Black Sea also demonstrate the inherent flexibility and capability of U.S. 6th Fleet naval forces.”
#USSFortMcHenry (LSD 43) & embarked elements of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), has begun its north-bound transit of the Dardanelles Strait, en route to the Black Sea #US6thFleet #Power4Peace pic.twitter.com/jTqF64i8e1
— U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa/U.S. 6th Fleet (@USNavyEurope) 6 January 2019
USS Fort McHenry, a 16,261-ton Whidbey Island-class dock landing ship, was launched on Feb. 1, 1986, and has Mayport, Florida, as its homeport. It can carry up to nearly 500 Marines aboard and is also equipped with a helicopter launch pad.
Meanwhile, the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit which is, according to the report, attached to the craft, is one of seven expeditionary units in the U.S. Marine Corps and the most decorated one among them all.
Based in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, the force has a strength of nearly 2,220 personnel.
The Ukrainian Naval Forces were unavailable for comment on whether they expect to welcome the American vessel at the Ukrainian shore soon.
This is the first deployment of a considerable U.S. naval force to go through the Dardanelles Strait following Russia’s Nov. 25 direct attack against three Ukrainian navy vessels navigating the Black Sea en route to the Azov Sea through the Kerch Strait.
All 24 Ukrainian crewmembers, with at least 3 sailors wounded, were captured and imprisoned by a Russian special task team.
The attack followed nearly five years of proxy land war in the Donbas and several months of growing tensions in the Azov Sea increasingly monopolized by Russia in 2018, prompted Ukraine to declare an unprecedented, though very limited, state of martial law in 10 border regions through Dec. 26.
Also, following the attack, the Ukrainian leadership called upon the U.S. and NATO allies to increase their military presence in the contested sea and therefore deter Russia’s intensifying aggression.
British Royal Navy’s hydrographic survey ship HMS Echo, which was stationed at the Ukrainian southern port of Odesa on Dec. 19 through Dec. 22, became the first NATO vessel to visit Ukrainian waters following the Nov. 25 attack.
HMS Echo was expected to be shortly replaced by its sister ship, HMS Enterprise.
In general, as Ukraine’s chief of naval staff Vice Admiral Andriy Tarasov told the Kyiv Post in Odesa on Dec. 21 upon the departure of HMS Echo, NATO naval forces would be making such visits more frequently in the nearest future.
On Dec. 5, CNN news reported that the U.S. Navy was preparing to send a warship to the Black Sea amid growing confrontation between Ukraine and Russia in the aquatic area.
The American Sixth Fleet stationed in Naples, Italy, also added that the U.S. Navy routinely conducts operations in the region and that all its activities were fully “consistent with international law, including the Montreux Convention” of 1936 on a special regime of navigation in the Dardanelles and the Black Sea.
Among the American warships engaged in mission in the region in 2018 were guided-missile destroyers USS Ross, USS Carney, and USS Porter, command and control ship USS Mount Whitney, dock landing ship USS Oak Hill with embarked elements of the 26th Marine Expeditionary unit, expeditionary fast transport USNS Carson City, the fleet said in its statement.
