US Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro named the future Bethesda-class expeditionary medical ship (EMS) USNS Portsmouth during a ship naming ceremony at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth in Virginia on Wednesday, January 8.
The decision to select the name Portsmouth was made to honour the legacy and commitment of the navy doctors, nurses, corpsmen and staff of Naval Medical Center Portsmouth and the city of Portsmouth, Virginia.
The naming selection of the future USNS Portsmouth follows the tradition of naming expeditionary medical ships after prominent military hospitals. Secretary Del Toro previously named USNS Bethesda and USNS Balboa.
EMS 3 will be the fifth US Navy vessel to be named Portsmouth.
Each Bethesda-class EMS is designed as a dedicated medical ship that optimises hospital-level medical care in support of distributed maritime operations (DMO). The EMS will feature a shallow draught enabling greater reach and allowing direct access to shallow austere ports, while also providing a flight deck that accommodates military helicopters.
The design provides a full range of medical capabilities including triage/critical care, three operating rooms, a medical laboratory, radiological capability, a blood bank, dental facilities, mental health facilities, OB/GYN and primary care, rapid stabilisation, and follow-on evacuation of multiple casualties and combat search and rescue (CSAR) including recovery at sea.
The primary mission of the EMS as a high-speed forward-deployed medical ship is to provide rapid responsive sea-based and near-shore hospital level critical care, humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, non-combatant evacuation operations and special operations. The EMS is designed to respond and provide care at a more rapid pace than their predecessors, USNS Mercy and USNS Comfort, sailing at speeds of at least 30 knots with a range of 5,500 nautical miles at 24 knots.
The Bethesda-class EMS are variants of the Spearhead-class expeditionary fast transports (EPFs) being built by Austal USA for the US Navy.