The guided-missile cruiser USS Chancellorsville and its crew of 400 sailors left San Diego Thursday morning for its new home port in Japan.
The 567-foot vessel, which will be based at Yokosuka, recently completed a modernization program, and now has the Navy's most advanced air and missile defense system. The Navy announced plans for the transfer in January, part of a plan to keep the most up-to-date warships based in Asia, where relations are sometimes tense with China and North Korea.
"It is Navy policy to forward deploy our most capable ships and there is no ship more capable than Chancellorsville," said Capt. Curt Renshaw, its commanding officer. "That capability is not just a result of recent modernization, but is also a function of the readiness of the crew — and this crew has worked very hard to prepare for this day to ensure we are able to arrive immediately prepared for any mission."
The Chancellorsville will be the first forward-deployed ship to have the latest version of the Aegis Baseline 9 combat system, a computer-based system for defending a carrier strike group against air and missile attack, according to the Navy.
The Chancellorsville is named for the Battle of Chancellorsville, which took place in Chancellorsville, Virginia, during the Civil War. It's one of the few Navy vessels to be named after a battle won by the Confederacy.
