The USS Fort Worth littoral combat ship departs for Asia on Monday for a 16-month deployment, the longest U.S. Navy ship deployment in 42 years, U.S. Navy officials said.
The USS Fort Worth will depart on Monday for Singapore, where the ship will be primarily based starting at the end of this year, as part of a strategy to maintain a U.S. presence overseas despite reduced resources after a decade of war.
Fort Worth has a core crew of 54 people, with 24 additional personnel operating a manned MH-60R Seahawk helicopter and an autonomous MQ-8B Fire Scout helicopter drone. Another 19 crew will maneuver the ship’s surface-warfare equipment.
The U.S. Navy expects to have four Littoral Combat Ships operating out of Singapore by 2018, with three crews rotating through two ships every four months as part of a strategy to work around budget constraints.
No U.S. aircraft carriers will be stationed in East Asian waters for at least four months next year, when the USS George Washington departs its home base in Japan for refueling and maintenance in the U.S. Details on its replacement have not been announced.
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