Is The U.S. Navy’s The USS Lewis B. Puller About To Become A Hospital Ship?

The Warzone/The Drive: The Navy's Giant Sea Base Is In The Middle East And Could Get Serious Medical Capabilities

The service is still exploring what the ships can do as it considers retiring at least one of its dedicated hospital ships.

The U.S. Navy’s new giant sea base, the USS Lewis B. Puller, is now on duty in the Middle East and the service is already experimenting with what the ship might be able to do. Currently, this includes acting a launch pad for boarding parties and special operators and serving as a platform for counter-mine operations. The ship might even eventually be able to take on the role of floating medical facility, which could be particularly important if one or both of the service’s existing hospital ships ends up in mothballs.

Puller first arrived in the region in August 2017, at which point the U.S. Fifth Fleet took control of the ship from the Navy’s hybrid military-civilian Military Sealift Command (MSC). Officially termed an Expeditionary Sea Base, or ESB, the vessel took over for the USS Ponce, an aging amphibious ship the service converted to serve as an interim float staging platform. In September 2017, Ponce returned to Norfolk Naval Station in Virginia for decommissioning and eventual scrapping.

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WNU Editor: It does not look like a hospital ship.