Operating in the Coral Sea off the east coast of Queensland, USS America was the heart of a USN Amphibious Ready Group that comprised USS New Orleans (LPD-18) and USS Green Bay (LPD-20). The exercise task group also included the helicopter carrier JS Izumo and the LST JS Shimokita from Japan, as well as the Australian LHD HMAS Adelaide and South Korean LPH ROKS Marado.
USS America acted as the flagship of Rear Admiral Chris Stone too, commander of Task Force 76/3 for the exercise. Under the USN’s Expeditionary Strike Group Seven, RDML Stone typically commands 11,000 sailors and marines plus 14 ships.
“Anytime we operate together, practise our skills, we learn things from each other, and we get better, so it’s been a really a phenomenal few weeks here of operating together out on the sea and learning things.”
Rear Admiral Chris Stone, Commander of Task Force 76/3
USS America, possessing a full-load displacement of 45,693 tonnes, carried US marines and a platoon from the German Navy’s Seebataillon. This was the first time for Germany to participate in Talisman Sabre, and the Seebataillon personnel were attached to a company of Battalion Landing Team 2/1 of the USMC’s 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit.
Captain Manny Pardo, CO of USS America, described his vessel as “the only large-deck amphib permanently stationed in the Indo-Pacific region”. He said LHA-6’s crew is usually 1,200, but this reached approximately 2400 with marines on board during the Australian exercise.
With their focus on aviation capabilities, USS America and its sister ship USS Tripoli do not have a well deck. To restore a balance of aviation and amphibious capabilities, USS Bougainville (LHA-8) and subsequent America-class vessels will restore a well deck in their designs.
Naval News was flown aboard USS America from Rockhampton Airport aboard an MV-22B on 31 July. Populating the ship’s 8,387m² flight deck – which has nine landing/launch spots – was a complement of 21 aircraft. Specifically, there were six F-35B fighters, eight MV-22B Osprey tiltrotors, four CH-53E Super Stallions and three MH-60S helicopters embarked. Two elevators move aircraft between the hangar and flight decks.
USS America supported two amphibious assaults during Exercise Talisman Sabre 2023, both conducted in close conjunction with Japanese vessels and troops of the Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade. Whilst embarked, Naval News witnessed this close cooperation between the two countries during a rehearsal of concept ahead of a culminating amphibious landing two days later.
The threat posed by China loomed as a backdrop to Talisman Sabre 2023. Since no single country is able to stand up to the growing might of the PLA in the Indo-Pacific region, the US sees partnerships as the best way to adequately counter Chinese military coercion. However, this cooperation must extend beyond mere interoperability.
RDML Stone explained: “So we talk a lot about interoperability of our forces. I view that really as kind of the basics; that’s being able to communicate with each other, and having similar systems, where you can, say, refuel each other’s ships, and things along those lines. Where we’re really trying to progress to is interchangeability, which is kind of the next step, that any one of us, regardless of the flag that we fly, can perform a mission for the other partner/ally … So, we’re really trying to progress to where we can plug and play with each other, where we have similar tactics, techniques, procedures, doctrine, understanding, training, proficiency. In any way you slice it or dice it, you can just take one and plug it into the other and do the same missions for each other.”
In response to China’s growing threat, the USN is adapting. RDML Stone told Naval News: “About a year and a half ago, we took a navy command, Expeditionary Strike Group Seven, which consists of amphibious ships…and the marine units of 3rd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, and we put them together with really a concept that, if we operated together day in and day out, that would be better as a combined team and more proficient than coming together for integration and exercises and operations, and then going our separate ways and coming back together.”
The admiral continued: “Technically, it’s still in the phase of experimentation. I don’t view it that way. As the commander, I view this as us getting back to our roots of the Navy-Marine Corps team … So, frankly, this is getting back to where we used to be after we’ve spent the last several decades focused on a different domain. It’s about being able to establish power projection from the maritime to the land.”
Naval News asked whether large amphibious vessels like LHA-6 are at risk to Chinese weapons such as DF-21D anti-ship ballistic missiles.
RDML Stone responded: “That’s one threat and that’s one capability. Our job and what we spend our time on every day is reassuring our allies and partners. And that’s a big part of deterrence, and we are capable, we are ready and we are training for that every day to defend this ship, this strike group, whatever it may be. We hope it doesn’t come to that; we prefer to practise our partnership … But we’re prepared, if it comes to conflict, to defend ourselves and defend the force against a range of threats and, frankly, we practise it every single day.”
CAPT Pardo concurred: “The navy, we practise, we rehearse, how to defend ourselves, no matter who the potential adversary might be… Yes, that’s always a concern, so we always set up the forces that we have available to help protect…” He added that the F-35 brings a “huge increase in capability” for the USMC “as far as the ability to defend it from the Chinese, from any adversary”. He noted that the F-35B “increases our capabilities to search for different targets, search for the enemy or participate in defence of the force”.
Defensive weapons on LHA-6 are two RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile launchers, two RIM-162 ESSM launchers, two 20mm Phalanx CIWS, two Mark 38 25mm M242 Bushmasters, seven twin 12.7mm machine guns and a Nulka decoy system. Offering his summation of Exercise Talisman Sabre 2023, RDML Stone enthused: “You’re seeing like-minded nations that are committing to a free and open Indo-Pacific that follows a rules-based order, and I think that again speaks for itself and is a testament to commitment from all these nations.”
