AP, Guided-missile cruiser set for maiden deployment
The guided-missile cruiser USS Yorktown will be deployed Tuesday from its homeport at Naval Station Pascagoula.
It will be the cruiser's maiden deployment.
The Yorktown, with a crew of about 400, will join the USS Wasp Expeditionary Strike Group, or ESG, for amphibious operations as needed in the war on terrorism.
The ESG is a departure from the strategy of building large battle groups around aircraft carriers or amphibious group that could deploy larger numbers of troops with limited strike capabilities.
For the first time, submarines, destroyers and cruisers are included in amphibious groups.
Naval officials want smaller, more nimble strike groups than those that operated during the Cold War. But they still want the groups to rival the forces of small countries.
Cmdr. Steven Sloan, the Yorktown's commanding officer, said the significance of this deployment “is that this is the first time in several years that a Pascagoula-based ship has deployed to Europe and the Middle East. This is the first time any Pascagoula ship has been part of an Expeditionary Strike Group.”
The Yorktown is slated to be the surface warfare commander for the strike group, meaning that the vessel and its crew will lead the defense of the group against any surface threat.
The Yorktown's Aegis combat system can detect, track, and destroy enemy aircraft, missiles, submarines, and surface ships.
The Yorktown will be deployed for six months, Sloan said.
