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Navy Plans to Make Base From Old Ship

By THOM SHANKER
Published: January 27, 2012

WASHINGTON — The Navy is converting an amphibious transport and docking ship to serve as a floating base for military operations and humanitarian assistance, with deployment expected this summer to waters in the Middle East, Pentagon officials said Friday.

The conversion of the Ponce, which had been scheduled for retirement, would be an interim step to providing the military with its first afloat staging base.

The Pentagon’s new budget proposals, unveiled Thursday, included money to turn a freighter hull into a full-time floating base that could be moved around the world for military operations or humanitarian missions.

But the fiscal year does not begin until October and, to meet a standing request from American military commanders in the Middle East, Pentagon and Navy officials decided to convert the Ponce to serve as a floating base in the meantime.

“This is a longstanding request that, with the opportunity now before us, we are fulfilling,” said Capt. John Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman.

He emphasized that though the conversion was being done in an expedited fashion, it was not to meet the timeline of any specific military operation in the region.

The decision to proceed with an interim version of the floating base was first reported Friday by The Washington Post online.

Officials said the staging base would allow commandos, helicopters, speedboats and even aircraft with a short-takeoff capability to operate in regions where the United States does not have access to installations on land.

While its value as a staging base for combat operations would be a priority, it also could be moved near an area suffering from natural disaster, to provide full logistics for the military to carry out relief missions for a region left without power, food or potable water.

© 2012 The New York Times Company

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/28/world/middleeast/us-navy-plans-to-convert-ship-into-floating-base.html