U.S. Navy Trading Destroyers for PCs in 5th Fleet | USNI News
The Navy is trading high-dollar warships for smaller Cyclone-class patrol craft (PC) to keep the peace in the Arabian Gulf, service officials told USNI News Wednesday in a conference call with reporters.
In an era of tightening budgets and with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan winding down, the need for as many large ships, like Arleigh Burke guided missile destroyers (DDG-51), in the Navy’s 5th Fleet is less, said Destroyer Squadron 50 and Combined Task Force 55 (DESRON50/CTF-55) commander Capt. Joseph Naman.
“Our numbers of DDGs we have out here have declined over the past year. [PCs] are picking up a lot of the missions they were doing, ” Naman said.
“It doesn’t mean we are going to do away with the DDG. They still have a mission here.”
By 2014, the Navy will have ten Cyclones home-ported in Bahrain to operate in the Arabian Gulf and as far afield as the Gulf of Oman, Naman said.
The ships have a range of missions including providing security for infrastructure, like off-shore oil platforms, as well as providing close-in protection for larger ships like DDGs that provide a ballistic missile defense shield for the region.
