USS Canberra (LCS 30) has arrived in Sydney, Australia, ahead of its one-of-a-kind commissioning on Saturday which will see the Independence-class vessel become the first U.S. warship to enter service while in a foreign port.
The United States Navy’s 16th littoral combat ship of the class will return to its homeport of San Diego immediately after commissioning.
Canberra is the second U.S. Navy ship to bear the namesake of Australia’s national capital and bears testimony to the shared interests of two countries that have fought side-by-side in every major conflict since World War I.
The ship, launched in June 2021, was named Canberra after the Australian cruiser HMAS Canberra which was sunk following the Battle of Savo Island against Japanese forces on 9 August 1942.
Officials in attendance Saturday at the commissioning are expected to include U.S. Navy littoral combat ship Squadron One Commodore Captain Marc Crawford, USS Canberra Gold crew Commanding Officer, U.S. Navy Commander Bobby Barber, and HMAS Canberra (III) Commanding Officer, Royal Australian Navy Captain Brendan O’Hara.
Independence-class vessels, which include the USS Canberra, feature a trimaran hull design which is a breakaway from the steel/aluminum monohull of the Freedom class.
As Breitbart London reported, Australian Chief of Navy, Vice Adm. Mark Hammond said this historic event encapsulates seals the modern day partnership between the RAN and the U.S. Navy while saluting past ties. Hammond said:
This is a unique demonstration of respect by the U.S. for the Officers and Sailors of the Royal Australian Navy.
It is an opportunity to reflect on our shared history, and on a friendship forged while fighting side-by-side. On August 9, 1942 the RAN heavy cruiser HMAS Canberra was severely damaged off Guadalcanal (Solomon Islands) while protecting the U.S. Marines fighting ashore.
In a surprise attack by a powerful Japanese naval force, Canberra was hit 24 times in less than two minutes and 84 of her crew were killed including Captain Frank Getting.
The battle of Savo Island was one of the first major naval engagements in the Pacific to feature a mixed force of U.S. and Australian vessels fighting side-by-side against the Japanese.
The first USS Canberra was a Baltimore-class cruiser and later a Boston-class guided missile cruiser.
President Eisenhower looking out to sea from the dock of the Guided Missile cruiser ‘USS CANBERRA’, on the way to Bermuda, April 15th 1957. (Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
The ship entered service in 1943, and served in the Pacific theater of World War II until she was torpedoed during the Aerial Battle of Taiwan-Okinawa and forced to return to the United States for repairs.
Placed in reserve after the war, Canberra was selected for conversion into the second guided-missile carrying warship in the USN fleet.
Following the conversion, she was host to the ceremony for selecting the Unknown Soldier representing World War II in 1958, undertook an eight-month round-the-world cruise in 1960, participated in the Cuban Missile Crisis naval blockade in 1962, and was deployed to the Vietnam War on five occasions between 1965 and 1969.
A flash from a triple salvo lights up the night as guns on the USS Canberra fire at military targets on the North Vietnamese coast. (Hulton Archive/Getty)
Canberra was decommissioned in 1970, struck in 1978, and broken up in 1980.
One of her propellers is preserved at the Los Angeles Maritime Museum, while the ship’s bell was donated to the Australian National Maritime Museum in 2001.