Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro announced Wednesday at Portsmouth Naval Hospital the branch’s newest hospital ship will be named after the hospital. The smaller, faster ships will eventually replace the Navy’s storied hospital ships —USNS Mercy and Comfort.
“Every time we deploy the Mercy and Comfort, it literally takes months of planning, and thousands of people who deploy with it,” Del Toro said. “This will deploy with a smaller contingent of medical professionals that actually will be able to go all around the globe.”
Comfort is homeported in Norfolk. Mercy is based in San Diego. Painted white with the red crosses, the ships have been a symbol of American humanitarian efforts around the globe, he said.
Its size can make it difficult to dock in smaller ports or areas impacted by a disaster.
USNS Comfort is 894 feet long and displaces 63,000 tons. It has 1,000 beds, 12 operating rooms and can accommodate up to 1,200 medical professionals.
The new ships will have 124 beds and four operating rooms but they will sail at speeds of at least 30 knots. The double hull design is based on a fast transport ship already in production.
“What we learned in Afghanistan about the golden hour is to get folks out of the combat zone and into a medical treatment facility,” said Adm. Daryl Caudle, head of Fleet Forces. “So the speed and agility and flexibility of these ships in particular is what the golden hour looks like on the high seas.”
Last January, the Navy awarded Alabama-based shipbuilder Austal USA an $867 million contract to build three hospital ships. The double-hulled design makes them faster and able to dock at more shallow ports.
The first ship in the class, USNS Bethesda, is already under construction. It is named after the community that houses Walter Reed Medical Center in Maryland. The second ship is USNS Balboa, named after the Navy hospital in San Diego. The Navy has not decided where the new ships will be based.
The sponsor for Portsmouth is Terri Ann Via, wife of Rear Adm. Via, Surgeon General of the Navy. The couple live in Virginia Beach.
