Good night, USS Tarawa; Let angels sing thee to thy rest.
The decommissioned amphibious assault ship was sunk on July 19. as part of this year’s Exercise Rim of the Pacific, or RIMPAC, according to the Navy’s 3rd Fleet.
The Tarawa is one of the largest vessels that U.S. and partner forces have sunk in nearly two decades, a 3rd Fleet news release says. The last time a ship of its class was sunk as part of a military exercise was in 2006, when the former amphibious assault ship Belleau Wood was sent to the bottom during that year’s RIMPAC.
The Navy had not yet released photos or video of the sinking as of Tuesday afternoon.
One of the munitions used to sink the Tarawa was the Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile, or LRASM, which was fired from a Navy F/A-18F Super Hornet. The missile can also be fired from Air Force B-1 bombers.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington, D.C., recommended that the U.S. military announced in 2023 that the U.S. military stock up on LRASMs after conducting a wargame that looked at a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.
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“The LRASM was particularly useful because of its ability to strike Chinese naval forces and directly reduce Chinese invasion capabilities,” the think tank found. “In every iteration, the United States expended its entire global inventory of LRASMs (about 450 missiles) within the first week of the conflict.”
Sinking the Tarawa also allowed the Royal Australian Navy destroyer HMAS Sydney to test the Naval Strike Missile, which the Australians are buying to replace its Harpoon missiles, the country’s Department of Defence announced in a separate news release.
The Tarawa was the second Navy ship named for a Pacific island that was the site of a brutal battle fought by Marines in World War II. The most recent Tarawa, was commissioned in 1976 and went on to take part in Operations Desert Shield and Iraq Freedom while also participating in cyclone relief efforts in Bangladesh. The ship was decommissioned in 2009.
Ships and aircraft participating in the live-fire exercise also sank the decommissioned amphibious transport dock USS Dubuque on July 11 as part of this year’s RIMPAC. Both the Tarawa and Dubuque were sunk in waters 15,000 feet deep more than 50 nautical miles off Kauai, one of the Hawaiian Islands.
So far this summer, the U.S. military has also sunk the former amphibious transport dock USS Cleveland as part of Valiant Shield 2024, and a Marine AH-1Z Viper attack helicopter sank a towed target using an AGM-179 Air-to-Ground Missile, or JAGM.
“Sinking exercises give us a chance to sharpen our skills, learn from one another, and get real-world experience,” Navy Vice Adm. John Wade, RIMPAC 2024 Combined Task Force Commander, said in a statement. “Using advanced weapons and seeing the professionalism of our teams during these drills shows our commitment to keeping the Indo-Pacific region safe and open.”