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USS PONCE RTHP. HD Video by Petty Officer 2nd Class Justin Wolpert | Commander, Naval Surface Force Atlantic | 09.27.2017 -- NORFOLK (Sept. 27, 2017) Afloat forward staging base-interim USS Ponce (AFSB(I) 15) returns to Naval Station Norfolk after being forward deployed to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations for more than five years. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Justin Wolpert / Released.)
USS Ponce (AFSB(I)-15), formerly LPD-15, an Austin-class amphibious transport dock...
USS PONCE RTHP. HD Video by Petty Officer 2nd Class Justin Wolpert | Commander, Naval Surface Force Atlantic | 09.27.2017 -- NORFOLK (Sept. 27, 2017) Afloat forward staging base-interim USS Ponce (AFSB(I) 15) returns to Naval Station Norfolk after being forward deployed to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations for more than five years. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Justin Wolpert / Released.)
USS Ponce (AFSB(I)-15), formerly LPD-15, an Austin-class amphibious transport dock of the United States Navy. Commissioned in 1971, USS Ponce spent most of her career based on the East Coast and operating in the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. It was intended that the ship would be decommissioned in 2012, but she gained a reprieve to be converted at short notice into a testbed for the Afloat Forward Staging Base concept, in which she would act as a base for mine-sweeping MH-53E Sea Dragon helicopters. Following the conversion, Ponce had been used to test other ideas and technologies, such as the Laser Weapon System and operating United States Army helicopters at sea. After the arrival of the USNS Lewis B. Puller as a permanent AFSB, Ponce was decommissioned in October 2017 after 46 years of service and 27 deployments.
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Published on Nov 15, 2017
