The U.S. will honor its close ties with Australia by naming a future U.S. Navy warship the USS Canberra. The name pays tribute to an Australian cruiser attacked in World War II. Canberra is the capital of Australia.
“As she sails the open sea, the new USS Canberra will symbolize to all who cross her path the enduring friendship between the United States and Australia,” President Trump said at a joint news conference with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull earlier this year. “There is no closer friendship.”
The warship will carry helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicles or a mix of the two. But what makes this high-performance ship stand out is its speed, ability and stability.
Work on the ship is scheduled to start in January 2019. Austal USA, a subsidiary of Australia–based Austal Limited (where many say “G’day” to mean hello) will manufacture the USS Canberra at its shipyard in Mobile, Alabama, in the southern U.S. (where many say “y’all” to mean “you all”).
The military relationship between the U.S. and Australia dates back to 1918, when during World War I troops from the countries fought next to each other for the first time at the Battle of Hamel in France.
Since then, the countries have collaborated on agriculture, health, information sharing, security cooperation, space, investment, efforts to denuclearize North Korea, and other crucial matters.
The USS Canberra is “a great symbol of our alliance and our shared security endeavors,” Turnbull said at the press conference with Trump. “What a great example of a hundred years of mateship.”
