According to Japanese media reports, the US Navy's expeditionary mobile base ship "Miguel Keith" recently arrived at the Sasebo base on the coast of the Sea of Japan in southwest Japan and docked. According to the report, the ship had previously departed from the port of Hawaii in the central Pacific Ocean, headed west, passed through Okinawa and entered the Sea of Japan, and arrived at the Sasebo base, the entire voyage lasted nearly 1 month.
It is understood that the US military's expeditionary mobile base ship, as a large-scale water non-combat vessel, is mainly used as a maritime base, which can replace the role of a part of the shore-based base and port, and can be approached by a variety of ships and provide them with mission supplies, etc., so as to support the implementation of a variety of mission operations in the absence of overseas bases, anti-mine operations and maritime rescue operations. In addition, special operations can be performed. The base ship is the latest and most advanced expeditionary base ship of the US military. It was dispatched to Hawaii for deployment just after entering service in May 2021. He has since sailed within the jurisdiction of the U.S. Navy's Seventh Fleet.
According to the report, the expeditionary mobile base ship has a length of 239.3 meters, a width of 50 meters, and a full load displacement of 90,000 tons, which is the largest warship outside the AIRcraft carrier of the US Navy, and the ship uses conventional power, which is very special compared with the aircraft carrier, and is currently the world's largest tonnage conventional power warship. It looks similar to a large tanker, but has different mission divisions.
Analysts pointed out that this type of base ship is a kind of support ship developed by the US Navy after the end of World War II, because the US military was cancelled after the end of World War II, so the US military used such base ships to assist in maritime missions to a certain extent. However, this time the ship arrived in Japan, and the mission it carried out was somewhat "confusing", because Japan, as the "front line" fortress of the United States in the western Pacific, had the Yokosuka Military Port on the east coast of Japan, the Sasebo Military Port in the west, and Okinawa and other bases for the US military to use, and the US military deployed the base ship to Japan is obviously a bit redundant. In addition, the United States has a number of overseas bases in Asia, including Clark Base in the Philippines and Changi Naval Base in Singapore, in addition to the U.S. Military also has a Base in Guam, the base ship's most unusable area is the Western Pacific, but it still deployed the ship to the region, and had to be considered for reasons.
Analysts believe that the ship was deployed to the region, apparently because the US military's control over the area has weakened, so it urgently mobilized this warship to the western Pacific to improve its defense capabilities, but considering that it does not have combat capabilities, but also deployed to such a "front- line" area, coupled with the size of the ship is so large, once a combat operation occurs, the ship's survivability is very weak, and even can not withstand the first round of strikes, so the ultimate purpose of the US military to deploy the ship to the western Pacific is likely to be very simple, That is to deter neighboring countries, but it is likely to be counterproductive in the end.