Rushmore, Cleveland Arrive in Singapore for Port Call

By Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Eva-Marie Ramsaran, Bonhomme Richard Amphibious Ready Group Public Affairs

SINGAPORE (NNS) -- USS Cleveland (LPD 7) and USS Rushmore (LSD 47) from the Bonhomme Richard Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) arrived in Singapore Oct. 28 for a scheduled port visit.

The visit comes after Cleveland and Rushmore's participation in Marine Exercise 2009, a multilateral training exercise with the Indonesia military.

Sailors and Marines from both ships and the embarked 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit are scheduled to participate in several community service projects during the port visit.

Cleveland's 40 volunteers will help maintain the grounds at the Archdiocesan Commission for Missionary Activity and will interact with elderly residents at a local Peace-Connect facility.

Sailors and Marines from Rushmore will visit with local residents at the Peace Haven Nursing Home and the Singapore Association of the Visually Handicapped.

"This is my first time going to Singapore, and I'm very excited about the visit and participating in a community service project to help the local people," said Yeoman 3rd Class Angie Morales, a Rushmore crew member and community service volunteer.

Sailors and Marines from both ships are also scheduled to play soccer, basketball and volleyball with local youth teams.

The Bonhomme Richard ARG is transiting the 7th Fleet Area of Operations and reports to the Commander, Amphibious Force 7th Fleet, Rear Adm. Richard Landolt, who is headquartered in Okinawa, Japan.

Rushmore Completes ASW Tests on Nanoose Range

Sailors on the stern gate of the amphibious dock landing ship USS Rushmore (LSD 47) await the arrival of a small craft during an early morning passenger transfer. Rushmore is supporting anti-submarine warfare training at the Nanoose firing range. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Damien Horvath/Released)

By Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Damien E. Horvath, Fleet Public Affairs Center Pacific

USS RUSHMORE, British Columbia (NNS) -- USS Rushmore (LSD 47) completed 10 days of intense torpedo firing exercises and developmental surface ship torpedo defense experimentation at the Canadian Forces Maritime Experimental and Test Ranges (CFMETR) on Oct. 10.

CFMETR, commonly referred to as the Nanoose Firing Range, presented an opportunity for Rushmore Sailors, in conjunction with representatives and from the Program Executive Officer, Submarine's (PEO SUB) Undersea Defensive Warfare Systems Office, Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC), Office of Naval Research (ONR), and research teams from John Hopkins and Penn State Universities, to actively test both new and developing technologies, as well as maintain and sharpen skills on current weapons and defense systems.

Rushmore entered the 56 square-mile Nanoose Range to serve as the main test platform for sea trials and to provide existing personnel, communication capabilities, and technological support to conduct a series of coordinated exercises with temporarily-installed test equipment and research teams located on the flight deck, and the Range Operations Center (ROC) located on Winchelsea Island overlooking the range.

"The ROC serves as the epicenter, or main hub for all of the data collected from the exercises being conducted on the range," said Range Officer, Canadian Armed Forces, Lt. Ralph Burgess. "In this particular series of exercises, we receive all the unrefined numbers, be it from Rushmore or any other smaller boats or aircraft contributing to operations, and store it both electronically and sometimes in hard copies for further analysis by the appropriate individuals or research teams."

During range testing, Rushmore acted as a target ship in a simulated hostile environment, receiving numerous incoming threats from various types of torpedoes ranging from one-at-a-time to multiple shot evolutions. The ship and the research teams aboard then deployed existing torpedo countermeasure technology like the SLQ-25C (NIXIE) as well some developing surface ship torpedo defense technologies like prototype anti-torpedo torpedoes fired from the flight deck of Rushmore.

Many different components must work in unison to ensure safe and successful exercises. A multitude of aircraft and smaller vessels play an integral part in range operations including the CP-140 Aurora Maritime Surveillance aircraft and the Canadian Armed Forces CH-124 Sea King.

After a particular exercise is complete, it is the responsibility of Navy divers to recover the buoyant test torpedoes. Working from Torpedo Weapons Retriever (TWR) small boats, the diver harnesses the floating torpedo, and the TWR crew uses a winch to pull it from the water and secure it to specially designed rollers for transportation to shore or one of the range's two 187-foot Yard Tender Torpedo (YTT) boats that have on-board underwater torpedo launch systems that fire the majority of the test torpedoes.

"I have had the pleasure of working with some of the finest Sailors the Navy has to offer on my TWR," said TWR small craft operator Mike Allen. "There have been some very testing times out here, unpredictable weather and sometimes unpredictable range schedules, but everyone does their part to accomplish the desired end result."

In addition to recovery by TWR, the range also possesses the capability to recover test torpedoes by helicopter and various underwater retrieval methods.

"Rushmore crew has done well in demonstrating the ship's capabilities to conduct anti-submarine warfare testing and to support the scientists and engineers," said Rushmore Commanding Officer, Cmdr. Calvin Slocumb.

"The opportunities I have had to command Rushmore on deployment, participate in the Great White Fleet, and now to support future developments to improve amphibious ships' survivability against a subsurface threat underscores the importance of training the crew and maintaining a warship ready for tasking. It's an honor to serve on the ship selected to take part in this important operation."

Canadian Forces have operated a torpedo test range on the west coast of Canada since 1954, but in 1965 under an international agreement between Canada and the United States the Nanoose Range was officially established. Since then, Nanoose Range has played host to a wide variety of American and allied forces surface ships and submarines conducting high-tech and fast-paced exercises and experimentation for practical application in today's ever-changing global maritime environment.

COMNAVSURFOR Visits USS Rushmore As Ship Prepares for INSURV

The amphibious dock landing ship USS Rushmore (LSD 47) heads out to sea after dispatching Amphibious Assault Vehicles (AAV) during a mechanized amphibious raid in support of exercise Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2004. RIMPAC is the largest international maritime exercise in the waters around the Hawaiian Islands. This year's exercise includes seven participating nations; Australia, Canada, Chile, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States. RIMPAC is intended to enhance the tactical proficiency of participating units in a wide array of combined operations at sea, while enhancing stability in the Pacific Rim region. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate 1st Class Jane West

By Ens. Ryan de Vera, USS Rushmore Public Affairs

SAN DIEGO (NNS) -- Vice Adm. D.C. Curtis, Commander, Naval Surface Forces (COMNAVSURFOR) and Commander, Naval Surface Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet toured USS Rushmore (LSD 47) Sept. 11, as the ship continued to make preparations for a visit by the Navy's Board of Inspection and Survey (INSURV).

INSURV is a Congressionally-mandated inspection set to ensure that ships of the United States Navy are properly equipped for prompt, reliable, sustained mission readiness at sea.

Rushmore's Commanding Officer Cmdr. Calvin Slocumb, along with Capt. Rodney Clark, commander, Amphibious Squadron 7, hosted Vice Adm. D.C. Curtis on a pre-INSURV tour. During the tour, Curtis spoke with several Rushmore Sailors to find out what their jobs were and how they were preparing for INSURV.

"I talked to Vice Adm. Curtis about the repairs we made to one of our main reduction gears," said Chief (Sel.) Engineman Gabriel Carreon. "I also told him how we took the opportunity to conduct training for other Sailors while we worked on our equipment."

Rushmore is scheduled to have their INSURV the week of Oct. 27. During INSURV, inspectors will visit every compartment aboard and assess the ship's overall readiness to ensure the ship is ready to fight.