According to information published by the Finnish MoD on August 3, 2022, the United States Navy’s amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge will arrive in Helsinki, Finland, for a port visit.
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The US Navy's Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge (Picture source: Finnish MoD)
The ship will berth in the Hernesaari harbor. Exercise activity will continue in the Northern Baltic Sea and off the coast of Western Uusimaa. The USS Kearsarge and its crew will continue exercising in the Northern Baltic Sea and the region of Hanko and Upinniemi with the Finnish Navy 8-19 August.
The USS Arlington and USS Gunston Hall as well as components of the US Marine Corps (22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit) will also participate in the exercises.
The exercises consist of several partial entities at sea and in the Hankoniemi and Upinniemi areas. The objective of the training is to develop interoperability and compatibility between the Finnish Navy and the United States Navy and Marine Corps as well as Finland’s ability to provide host nation support. The Navy will participate in the exercises with troops and vessels from the Navy Command, Nyland Brigade, Coastal Brigade, and Coastal Fleet.
Utti Jaeger Regiment will support troop transports with NH90 -helicopters together with Chinooks and Blackhawks from the United States. Additionally, troop transports will be supported by AH-1Z Viper and UH-1Y Venom helicopters from USS Kearsarge. The Air Force will take part in the exercises with F/A-18 Hornet multi-role fighters.
The training will involve significant water traffic and air activity and will cause air noise in the Hankoniemi and Upinniemi areas every day during the exercise.
About the Wasp-class USS Kearsarge
USS Kearsarge (LHD-3) is the third Wasp-class amphibious assault ship of the United States Navy. She is the fifth ship to bear that name, but the fourth to serve under it, as the third was renamed Hornet (CV-12) before launching (after the prior Hornet was sunk).
She was launched on 26 March 1992, in a ceremony attended by then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Colin Powell. The warship was christened on 16 May 1992, and commissioned on 16 October 1993.
The assault support system on the ship coordinates vertical and horizontal movement of troops, cargo and vehicles. A Monorail system, moving at speeds up to 600 ft/min (3 m/s), transports cargo and supplies from storage and staging areas throughout the ship to a 13,600-square-foot (1,260 m2) well deck, which opens to the sea through huge gates in the ship's stern.
There, the cargo, troops, and vehicles are loaded onto landing craft for transit to the beach. The air cushion landing craft can "fly" out of the dry well deck, or the well deck can be flooded so that conventional landing craft can float out on their way to the beach.
Simultaneously, helicopters can be lifted from the hangar deck to the flight deck by two deck-edge elevators and loaded with supplies from three massive cargo elevators.
Kearsarge's armament suite includes the NATO RIM-7 Sea Sparrow point defense system for anti-aircraft support, RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missiles, 25-mm chain guns, and the Phalanx close-in weapon system to counter threats from low-flying aircraft and close-in small craft. Missile decoy launchers augment the anti-ship missile defenses.
