Edhat readers share photos of the USS Santa Barbara crusing through the channel. The boat will have a commissioning ceremony on April 1st in Ventura, read more about it here.
By Cody Westheimer
Big military ship outside SB harbor at 11am
By an edhat reader
Just saw this battleship arrive, spin a couple doughnuts, then leave.
According to Marine Traffic dot com. USS Santa Barbara. Should be the “gray” icon at site now by Oxnard.
Cool site, thanks.
It’s a littoral combat ship, I believe. Designed for close-in, near-shore combat.
Looks like the USS Santa Barbara which is being commissioned down south on Saturday
USS Santa Barbara was built in Mobile, Alabama by Austal USA. Her keel was laid down on 27 October 2020, she was christened on 16 October 2021 and launched on 13 November 2021. Following the completion of sea trials on 3 June 2022, the ship was accepted by the Navy on 21 July 2022, with a commissioning date set for 01 April 2023 at Port Hueneme, California.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Santa_Barbara_(LCS-32)
There are currently no battleships in commission with any navy. It’s a rather specific term.
Maybe too much time spent in the area where a breeze was blowing out to sea from all the marijuana grows. Driver got a little loopy?
Being named the USS Santa Barbara, when this new ship’s crew rack up “kills”, maybe they could paint leafy marijuana symbols on the hull?
They already do that when they intercept drug smugglers.
How cool is that – thank you for serving!
The ship is flying the Santa Barbara City flag.
LCS-32 (large hull number barely visible on the bow in one of Ed’s pix) rated 47 knots (54 mph) top speed according to the wiki. Must’ve been great fun to watch, for those lucky enough to be out on the water during the show.
Rather more maneuverable than most ships, as demonstrated by the “donuts” and indicated by the wiki: “Propulsion 2× gas turbines, 2× diesel, 4× waterjets, retractable Azimuth thruster” – interesting extra details about the type: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independence-class_littoral_combat_ship (check out the joystick).
Hey, we may not have affordable healthcare or usable public transportation but at least there’s an over-engineered, way over-budget warship doing donuts in the harbor ¯_(ツ)_/¯