USS Fort Worth Conducts First CUES Activity With Chinese Warship.

The US Navy (USN) Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) USS Fort Worth (LCS 3) has conducted its first Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea (CUES) activity with a People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) warship, the USN announced on 26 February.

USS Fort Worth Conducts First CUES Activity With Chinese Warship.

The activity was conducted in international waters in the South China Sea, beginning on 23 February, with the Type 054A Jiangkai II-class guided-missile frigate Hengshui(572).

CUES was ratified unanimously by 25 Asia-Pacific countries at the 14th Western Pacific Naval Symposium (WPNS) in 2014. The set of protocols, designed to improve understanding and build confidence between navies, consists of standardised phrases for naval vessels and aircraft to use in unexpected encounters, with the aim of preventing any tensions from escalating into conflict.

" Fort Worth and Hengshui were conducting routine, but separate, operations at sea when they noticed each other and initiated CUES," Lieutenant Lauryn Dempsey, a public affairs officer with the USN's Destroyer Squadron 7 . " Fort Worth is currently headed north to participate in 'Foal Eagle', a US-Republic of Korea annual exercise," she added.

"Over the course of a few days both Fort Worth and Hengshui hailed each other over bridge-to-bridge radio in accordance with CUES," said Lt Dempsey, who added that the exchanges were brief and professional.

Fort Worth is currently based at Changi Naval Base in Singapore on a 16-month deployment. The ship is deployed with a surface warfare (SuW) mission package that includes one Sikorsky MH-60R Seahawk helicopter, one Northrop Grumman MQ-8B Fire Scout unmanned aerial vehicle, and two 11 m rigid-hull inflatable boats. The vessel is also armed with two Mk 46 Mod 2 Bushmaster 30 mm guns, a 57 mm cannon, and a Raytheon RIM-116 21-cell rolling airframe missile launcher.