Text Fwd: USS Blue Ridge to arrive in Manila

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* Text Fwd from Corazon Valdez Fabros on Feb. 12, 2011

Global Nation Inquirer
USS Blue Ridge to arrive in Manila
By Jerry E. Esplanada
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 15:33:00 02/10/2011

MANILA, Philippines—The USS Blue Ridge, the flagship of the US 7th Fleet, is scheduled to arrive in Manila next Sunday for a "routine port call and four-day goodwill visit," according to the US Embassy in Manila.

The visit "highlights the strong and historic community and military connections between the US and the Philippines," the embassy said in an advisory.

The 19,609-ton warship, also known as "LCC-19," made a similar trip to the country August last year.

Captain Rudy Lupton, the ship's commanding officer, had called their Manila port call "a continuation of the strong alliance" between Washington and Manila.

The partnership "builds on strong ties between our two peoples, including joint sacrifices during World War II, Korea, Vietnam and the global war on terror," noted Lupton.

During their Manila stopover six months ago, crew members of the Blue Ridge took part in community outreach programs in Metro Manila and Central Luzon.

Named after a mountain range in the Appalachians, the Blue Ridge was commissioned on November 14, 1970 as a command and control ship for the US Navy.

On her maiden voyage on February 11, 1971, the ship steamed from the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard to San Diego, California, her first home port.

Between 1972 and 1979, she was deployed to the Western Pacific region as flagship of the US 7th Fleet's amphibious force, which took part in the April 1975 evacuation of American troops in South Vietnam, among other operations.

Since October 1979, the Blue Ridge has been based at the Yokusuka Naval Base in Japan as the flagship of the 7th Fleet.

In 1990 and 1991, she was assigned flagship of the US Naval Forces Central Command during the Desert Shield and Desert Storm, the US military's operations in Iraq.

The ship, also called the "Blue Cruiser," also took part in training exercises of the US and its allies in the Western Pacific and the Indian Ocean.

With a cruising speed of 20-plus knots and a range of 10,000 nautical miles, the Blue Ridge is armed with, among others, Phalanx guns, Bushmaster cannons, 8 x .50-caliber machine guns and Mark 36 SRBOC chaff rockets.

It also carries two Sikorsky SH-60 Seahawk helicopters.
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Information on USS Blue Ridge (LCC 19)

USS BLUE RIDGE is the lead ship of the BLUE RIDGE class and the Seventh Fleet command ship. USS BLUE RIDGE is the third ship in the Navy named after the Blue Ridge Mountains in the eastern United States.

General Characteristics:Keel Laid: 1967
Commissioned: November 14, 1970
Builder: Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, Philadelphia, NJ.
Propulsion system: two boilers, one geared turbine
Propellers: one
Length: 636,5 feet (194 meters)
Beam: 108 feet (32.9 meters)
Draft: 26,9 feet (8.8 meters)
Displacement: approx. 18,400 tons full load
Speed: 23 knots
Aircraft: all helicopters
Armament: two 20mm Phalanx CIWS, 50 cal machine guns, 25mm guns
Homeport: Yokosuka, Japan
Crew: 52 Officers, 790 Enlisted

The Mission of USS BLUE RIDGE:

Unlike its World War II predecessor of the same name, which had to be converted from a merchantman to an Amphibious Force flagship, the United States Ship BLUE RIDGE represents a unique effort and achievement in the Navy's Command and Control ship design.

Here for the first time is a platform built from the keel up to accomplish the mission of Command and Control coordination. In this 18,500 ton ship are found the facilities to direct and manage every phase of command and control operations. BLUE RIDGE represents the accumulated knowledge of four decades of the Navy's experience in meeting difficult challenges of Control and Coordination.

BLUE RIDGE utilizes its "main battery" of computers, communications equipment and other electronic facilities to fulfill her mission as flagship for the United States Seventh Fleet. These systems are also instrumental in its secondary function as a command ship for the Amphibious Task Force and Landing Force Commanders during all phases of fleetwide operations, as well as a Commander Joint Task Force (CJTF) flagship when national interests require it.

The BLUE RIDGE is equipped with an extremely sophisticated Command and Control system. The Joint Maritime Command Information System(JMCIS) consists of numerous powerful computers distributed throughout the ship from which information and data from worldwide sources are entered into a central database. This single integrated database concentrates the available information into a complete tactical picture of air, surface and subsurface contacts, enabling the Fleet Commander to quickly assess and concentrate on any situation which might arise. This ability to access information from military and civilian sources throughout the world gives BLUE RIDGE a global command and control capability unparalleled in Naval history.

In addition to its sophisticated command and control system, an extremely refined communications system is also an integral part of the ship's radical new design. Through an automated patch panel and computer-controlled switching matrix, any combination of communications equipment desired may be quickly connected. The "clean" topside area is the result of careful design intended to keep the ship's interference to her own communications system at a minimum.


Notes of Interest:
BLUE RIDGE carries enough food to feed the crew for 90 days and can transport supplies to support an emergency evacuation of 3,000 people.
BLUE RIDGE has accommodations for more than 250 officers, 1,200 enlisted men and 100 enlisted females.

More infos can be found at: http://www.facebook.com/USSBlueRidge