One of the Navy ‘s amphibious warships suffered a major mechanical failure earlier this week that forced it to return to port — at least the third such incident this year.
Lt. Cmdr. David Carter, a spokesman for Naval Surface Force Atlantic, confirmed that the USS Iwo Jima suffered “a non-propulsion-related materiel casualty in the engineering department” that forced the ship to return to Naval Station Norfolk on Thursday. That description could cover everything from a problem with the ship’s hydraulics to power generators to potable water equipment.
In an email to Military.com on Friday, Carter said that the ship was at sea conducting training to prepare it for an eventual deployment and the breakdown comes just weeks after the Marine Corps began calling for more regular deployments of its Marine units that serve aboard ships like the Iwo Jima.
A ship watcher who goes by the name AirAssets online first spotted the problem when they noticed , using tracking websites, several tugs sailing out into open waters off Virginia Beach to meet the ship. Several hours later, the Iwo Jima was spotted coming back to Norfolk .