The Pearl Harbor-based guided-missile destroyer USS Chung-Hoon has deployed to the Western Pacific June 1, 2011.
The Navy says the ship's 280 sailors are expected to work with coalition partners also in the region. The vessel left Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam Wednesday morning.
Last year, the Chung-Hoon and the Philippine Coast Guard practiced boarding and searching vessels in the Sulu Sea when the destroyer went to the region.
The ship provided support for U.S. and Philippine counterinsurgency efforts against militants in the southern part of the Philippines. It also participated in exercises with other U.S. forces off Guam and in drills with the Singapore navy.
Chung-Hoon, commanded by Cmdr. Stephen S. Erb, is deploying under the Middle Pacific Surface Combatant deployment concept in which Pearl Harbor-based ships deploy in support of operations primarily in the Western Pacific. The crew of about 280 Sailors will conduct integrated operations in conjunction with coalition partners deployed to the Western Pacific.
Guided-missile destroyers are multi-mission anti-air warfare, anti-submarine warfare and anti-surface warfare surface combatants. They operate independently for support of carrier and expeditionary strike groups and surface strike groups.
Chung Hoon provides deterrence, promotes peace and security, preserves freedom of the sea and provides humanitarian assistance / disaster response as part of CNSG MIDPAC.
The guided-missile destroyers USS Chung-Hoon took part the combined alliance maritime and air readiness exercise "Invincible Spirit" in the seas east of the Korean peninsula from July 25-28, 2010 conducted by the Republic of Korea and the United States.
In March 2009, the heavily armed USS Chung-Hoon escorted the US navy surveillance ship Impeccable, which found itself at the centre of a naval standoff with Chinese boats in the South China Sea.
USS Chung-Hoon is the 15th Flight IIA Arleigh Burke- class guided missile destroyer and the first ship in the Navy named after Navy Rear Admiral Gordon P. Chung-Hoon.
It is armed with one Mk-45 5"/62 caliber lightweight gun, two Mk-41 VLS for Standard missiles and Tomahawk ASM/LAM, two 20mm Phalanx CIWS, two Mk-32 triple torpedo tubes for Mk-50 and Mk-46 torpedoes, according the U.S. Navy. It also has two SH-60 (LAMPS 3) helicopters
Written by Makisig Bayani
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