Pentagon Posts Uncommon Picture Of Navy SEAL-Laden Particular Ops Sea Base
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Simply days after The Battle Zone printed an in-depth article on the MV Carolyn Chouest, the unassuming, however highly-modified and secretive particular operations mothership that plows the waters of the Indo Pacific, the Division of Protection simply peculiarly posted what could also be our greatest look but on the ship.
The picture is a part of a gallery of photographs displaying U.S. Navy SEALs and Particular Warfare Combatant-craft Crewmen (SWCC) working their stealthy Fight Craft Assault speedboats alongside Phillippine Navy and Australian particular operators as a part of the massive Balikatan 22 train. The picture was taken off the coast of Palawan on April seventh, 2022, however was solely launched at this time. The picture’s caption reads, partially:
Balikatan is an annual train between the Armed Forces of the Philippines and U.S. army designed to strengthen bilateral interoperability, capabilities, belief and cooperation constructed over many years of shared experiences. Balikatan, Tagalog for ‘shoulder-to-shoulder’ is a longstanding bilateral train between the Philippines and the US highlighting the deep-rooted partnership between each nations. BK22 is the thirty seventh iteration of the train and coincides with the seventy fifth anniversary of U.S. Philippine safety cooperation.
The gallery contains loads of different attention-grabbing photos, as seen beneath.
Whereas the pics of the SEALs and their allies raiding what seems to be a sea platform of some kind are attention-grabbing, the looks of the Carolyn Chouest actually is what makes this set of photos particular. The ship is seen doing precisely what it’s meant to do — work as a ahead floating staging base for U.S. particular operators working within the Pacific, which incorporates packing round CCAs, ‘tactical jet skis,’ RHIBs, and a ton of different gear. You’ll be able to see the ship is suffering from modular containers and coated with communications aerials. It additionally has its staple drone catapult on its higher deck above the strict.
Seeing the ship, which as soon as served as a young for the U.S. Navy’s deep-diving nuclear-powered mini-submarine, the NR-1, executing its mission is considerably bittersweet. In its Fiscal Yr 2023 finances proposal, the Pentagon desires to chop the funding to increase its lease on the ship and discontinue its use. Whereas the Navy has deployed considered one of its gargantuan Expeditionary Sea Bases to the Pacific for the primary time, that could be a very totally different animal than the extremely cell, remarkably covert, tailor-made functionality the Carolyn Chouest gives.
As soon as once more you learn can all about this distinctive platform’s capabilities and historical past, in addition to its murky future in our latest characteristic linked right here.
Contact the writer: Tyler@thedrive.com
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