U.S. Navy Quietly Decommissions Two Littoral Combat Ships in One Day

Published Oct 2, 2023 8:53 PM by The Maritime Executive

On Friday, the U.S. Navy base in Mayport, Florida hosted a scene rarely encountered since the mass demobilization of the late 1940s: two young warships with long lifetimes ahead were removed from service at the same harbor, on the same day.

The Freedom-class littoral combat ships USS Detroit and USS Little Rock are both well under 10 years old, and they are leaving the fleet two decades before the end of their design lifetime. Seven-year-old Detroit decommissioned in a ceremony Friday morning; later that evening, sister ship USS Little Rock - motto "Back with a Vengeance" - decommissioned in another ceremony nearby. The now-surplus Little Rock is only six years old and is headed to Philadelphia for layup, possibly for a future foreign military sale, according to local media.

Unlike most decommissioning ceremonies, the events were completed without an official readout or a photo release, though USS Detroit's crew memorialized the occasion on their Facebook page.

Both vessels were deployed until a few days before their back-to-back decommissionings. In service, Little Rock avoided the high-profile mechanical breakdowns associated with the Freedom-variant LCS. USS Detroit was not so lucky: she encountered problems during a deployment in 2020 caused by the class' well-publicized combining gear defect.

The U.S. Navy wants to offload all nine of its early-generation Freedom-class LCS vessels, which have high maintenance and operating costs but limited lethality and survivability, especially in a high-end fight. After early disappointments with the ship's maintainability and extended delays in the development of its multipurpose "mission packages," the Navy assigned the Freedom-class permanently to sub-hunting; however, the third-party sonar package for its ASW mission was canceled in 2022 after further developmental delays. According to then-Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday, the small warships are "as noisy as an aircraft carrier" - an inbuilt challenge for sensitive ASW sonar systems.

Without a working sonar, the Navy decided that it didn't need the early Freedom-class vessels for sub-hunting either. In 2022, the service proposed early retirement for every commissioned vessel of the type then in service, a total of nine hulls. Congress approved decommissioning for four, including Little Rock and Detroit. Each ship cost approximately $350 million to build.

The Navy continues to take delivery of additional new Freedom-class hulls while awaiting the arrival of the Constitution-class frigate. The final three Freedom-class vessels in the series have all been launched and are in various stages of fitting out.

https://maritime-executive.com/article/u-s-navy-quietly-decommissions-two-littoral-combat-ships-in-one-day

Cargill Faces Brazil Criminal Probe Over Amazon River Port Project

By Ana Mano Reuters October 3, 2023

SAO PAULO, Oct 3 (Reuters) – Brazilian federal prosecutors are investigating transactions involving grains trader Cargill and a Brazilian partner after they found “irregularities” in the acquisition of disputed land where the U.S. company plans to build a massive river port in the Amazon rainforest.

A spokesperson for the federal prosecutors’ office in Para state said they opened the criminal investigation after two prosecutors drafted a July memo, seen by Reuters, questioning the legality of the transaction due to suspected anomalies in the paperwork. The progress of the criminal probe remains confidential.

“The chain of ownership of private land transfers, presented by the companies to substantiate the legality of the purchase and sale … showed signs of being completely precarious and lacking minimum requirements to be considered legal,” wrote prosecutors in the memo, first reported by news website Sumauma on Monday.

A Cargill spokesperson said the investigation was a “surprise,” adding the trader obtained legal use and possession of a plot of land in Abaetetuba, Para state, where it is evaluating the feasibility of building a grain export terminal.

Brazilian firm Brick Consultoria em Gestao Limitada, which transferred the land to Cargill at an unspecified date according to prosecutors, did not reply to requests for comment.

In 2017, Cargill announced plans to invest in a new $178 million port at Abaetetuba, where it aims to eventually move some 9 million metric tons of grains annually from barges to cargo ships for export.

However, families in the area where Cargill plans to build the port say federal land reform agency INCRA set aside part of the land for them in 2005, denominating it the Santo Afonso Agroextractivist Settlement Area, according to court documents.

The prosecutors said INCRA and the Para federal heritage agency (SPU) should have stopped the sale and their officials should be probed too for failing to do so.

INCRA and SPU did not reply to requests for comment.

Even before the criminal probe, the federal prosecutors in Para had requested a court order suspending the river port project, citing evidence that the area destined for its use was obtained illegally “through land grabbing.”

A judge has still not ruled on that request.

Cargill, which runs three other river ports in the Amazon, said its environmental impact studies for the port are awaiting analysis by state environmental officials for a preliminary license.

“We have not and will not build a terminal until all required permits are in place and we have consulted with local communities,” Cargill said in a written statement.

($1 = 5.0658 reais)

https://gcaptain.com/cargill-faces-brazil-criminal-probe-over-amazon-river-port-project/

Brings back memory of Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis crying about Ukraine. They mentioned Cargill by name. Strange a pair of actors would know Cargill