5th Fleet Focus: Singapore Deploys Again to the Gulf

Singapore continues to be a solid friend to the Iraqi people as they deploy a LST yet again to the Persian Gulf in support of defending the Iraqi oil Terminals.

A Singapore Navy Landing Ship Tank (LST) left the country's Changi naval base early Saturday for the Gulf region to support the multi-national reconstruction efforts in Iraq.

According to the statement issued by the Defense Ministry on Saturday, RSS Resolution and its crew of about 175 personnel will undertake tasks such as protecting the waters around key oil terminals, conducting patrols and boarding operations, as well as providing logistics support for coalition vessels and helicopters during the three-month deployment.

To review the history here, RSS Endurance (L 207) operated in the Persian Gulf from October 2003 until December 2003. RSS Resolution (L 208) operated in the Persian Gulf from November 2004 until January 2005. RSS Endeavour (L 210) operated in the Persian Gulf from February 2006 until April 2006. RSS Persistence (L 209) deployed last September to contribute to Task Force 58.

Once again, we see an amphibious ship used in a role other than for amphibious assault, more evidence of the flexibility of the platform. In this case, Singapore uses their LSTs as motherships in protection of fixed resources at sea.

As the picture above highlights, in the past Singapore has deployed Protector USVs from their LSTs for patrols. In other words, big motherships, not small, is the trend everywhere but the US Navy.

In the past, people in the comments think we are out on a limb with our mothership concepts, but we again highlight the concepts promoted on the blog are tested, it is the US Navy spending taxpayer money on untested ideas... namely replacing rated frigates with unrated small motherships and expecting the same results.

We see RSS Resolution (L 208) replacing the USS Oak Hill (LSD 51) which will be returning home soon. The US Navy amphibious force has been on a very rapid deployment schedule, and we don't believe the US Navy will be deploying an amphibious ship to replace the USS Oak Hill (LSD 51) due to the high operational tempo. This deployment would seem to alleviate the necessity for a replacement.