Patriot Goes Underway for Training
Navy NewsStand
Story Number: NNS060206-09
Release Date: 2/6/2006 11:42:00 AM
From USS Patriot Public Affairs
SASEBO, Japan (NNS) -- USS Patriot (MCM 7) departed its forward deployed home of Sasebo, Japan, for a routine underway training period, Jan. 30.
During this underway, the mine countermeasures ship will work on mine sweeping efficiency and overall ship readiness.
“Patriot’s focus right now is mastering all forms of the mine warfare (MIW) suite,” said Lt. Cmdr. Richard Brawley, Patriot commanding officer. “We want to be able to detect mines in any type of condition, using the wide range of mine countermeasures capabilities that are possible on this ship.”
On the first day of the underway, the Patriot crew launched its mine neutralization vehicle (MNV), one of the most difficult mine sweep evolutions, said Brawley.
The ship conducted several variable depth sonar (VDS) operations and mine sweep maneuvers after leaving Sasebo.
The crew will continue to drill daily on a wide range of focus areas, added Brawley
“Our team continues to refine its skills with every sweep that we do,” said Brawley. “I am very pleased with level of perfection each member of crew strives for.”
Leading up to the underway, Patriot placed a premium on training by conducting simulation runs on the MNV and sonar scans using an SQQ-94 simulator, which provides realistic environments and scenarios.
“We know that if we train hard, we will succeed in any type of mission,” said Brawley.
Patriot is a mine countermeasures ship forward deployed to Sasebo, Japan. Patriot and USS Guardian (MCM 5) serve under Task Force 76, which serves as the 7th Fleet’s Mine Countermeasures arm in forward-deployed operations.
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