US Navy littoral combat ships spotted at Butterworth container terminal

GEORGE TOWN: The US Navy Independence-class littoral combat ships (LCS) USS Tulsa and USS Santa Barbara have been seen at the North Butterworth Container Terminal (NBCT) here.

According to news portal The War Zone (TWZ), the ships configured for minesweeping duties were last known to be forward-deployed in the Middle East, having arrived in Bahrain within the past year to replace a group of now-decommissioned Avenger-class mine hunters.

Photos on Instagram taken by a photographer named Sherwynd Kessler showed the ships docked at NBCT with the distinctive yellow gantry cranes visible in the pictures.

The photos were uploaded on Sunday (March 14), and according to TWZ, pictures available through the US military’s Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS) show the USS Tulsa was in port in Bahrain at least as of Feb 9.

It also said separate images show the USS Santa Barbara operating in the Persian Gulf on Jan 30.

TWZ said the reasons for sending the USS Tulsa and USS Santa Barbara far east remain unclear, but were possibly influenced by port availability and diplomatic factors.