The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Laboon (DDG 58) is halfway through Composite Training Unit Exercise (COMPTUEX) with the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group (TRCSG) in preparation for an upcoming scheduled deployment.
Laboon left Naval Station Norfolk Jan. 6, and its crew has stayed busy over the last 14 days with exercises involving visit, board, search, and seizure (VBSS), routine flight operations, electronic warfare and counter-targeting.
Laboon’s 1st Lieutenant, Ensign Joseph Lillie, said:
COMPTUEX is a great opportunity to put into practice all of the training we have received during the basic phase over the past 12 months. There is no question that our ship is better prepared for deployment because of the work we are doing out here.
Led by Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 4, COMPTUEX is an exercise designed to evaluate the mission-readiness of deployable assets as it relates to their ability to react to training scenarios and perform as an integrated unit.
Laboon is scheduled to finish COMPTUEX in early February, following the successful completion of operational training evolutions, such as scheduled live-fire exercises. Upon successful completion of COMPTUEX, Laboon would be certified to deploy to provide an overseas forward presence maintaining maritime security abroad.
The TRCSG consists of the staff of Carrier Strike Group 12, USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71), Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 1, Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 2, and her ships the guided-missile destroyers USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG 81), USS Forest Sherman (DDG 98) and USS Farragut (DDG 99).
Laboon and USS McFaul (DDG 74) are participating in the TRCSG COMPTUEX as independent deployers.
Press release, Image: US Navy