The Southern Seas 2024 deployment of the USS George Washington of the United States Navy was not only used by navies from the South American continent to exercise with the aircraft carrier, but also by other US armed services to carry out joint activities in the Pacific Ocean. This is demonstrated by the recent presence on the flight deck of the ship of one of the US Army’s CH-47F Chinook heavy transport helicopters.
Currently, the aircraft carrier USS George Washington is transiting the waters of various Latin American countries with its escort group, made up of the USS Porter and the logistics and resupply ship USNS John Lenthall, heading to San Diego. This is due to the transit that the ship is making in order to relieve the USS Ronald Reagan in Japan soon. Throughout its journey, units of the United States Navy have been carrying out various PASSEX type exercises with the naval forces of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Ecuador and, more recently, with Colombia; which involved one of its patrol boats participating in Operation GALAPEX 2024.
However, in order to strengthen joint action in the Southern Command area of operations with other branches of the US armed services, the aircraft carrier received a visit from one of the CH-47F Chinook helicopters operating within the Joint Task Force-Bravo (JTF-Bravo), which is an advanced element of the United States Armed Forces, based at the Soto Cano Air Base located in Honduras.
As shown in the photographs published on June 28, a CH-47F assigned to the 1-228th Aviation Regiment operated alongside the aircraft carrier USS George Washington, in order to carry out a series of qualification flights, including landings and takeoffs, as flight deck operations.
In more detail, this helicopter belongs to the first battalion of the 228th Aviation Regiment of the United States Army, also known as Winged Warriors. As an element deployed to carry out forward operations within the United States Southern Command, this aviation unit’s purpose is to carry out combat “…Counter-Narcotics, CTTOC (Countering Transnational Organized Crime), HA/DR (Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster Relief), DLO (Deck Landing Operations), NEO (Non-Combatant Evacuation Operations), Air Movements to Austere and Remote Locations, CASEVAC (Casualty Evacuation), and SAR (Search and Rescue), in any complex terrain, maritime environment, and disaster-affected areas.””.
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