Maintenance delays Peleliu, 15th MEU departure - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

Maintenance delays Peleliu, 15th MEU departure

SAN DIEGO — Navy officials, citing the need to do “emerging maintenance” on the amphibious assault ship Peleliu, have delayed the ship’s planned Thursday departure for deployment to the Western Pacific and Persian Gulf regions.

The postponement, announced Wednesday, came after crews discovered a cracked weld in one of the ship’s main feed pumps as outside contractors were doing maintenance on engineering equipment.

“This was previously scheduled maintenance that grew in scope as the work was being conducted by outside contractors,” said Lt. Cmdr. Chris Servello, a Naval Surface Forces spokesman in Coronado, Calif. “It makes sense to fix that here in San Diego so that the ship departs for deployment warfighting-ready.”

The move pushes Peleliu’s deployment to sometime this weekend, Servello said.

The ship, loaded with more than 1,000 Marines and aircraft of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, was scheduled to depart its berth at San Diego Naval Base on Thursday morning. But “the ship will depart over the weekend,” Third Fleet officials in San Diego said.

Peleliu, with a crew of about 1,000, is serving as the command ship of Amphibious Squadron 3, led by Navy Capt. Dale G. Fuller. The ship is also leading a three-ship amphibious ready group carrying the Camp Pendleton-based 15th MEU.

Transport dock ship Dubuque, carrying several hundred Marines, left its San Diego berth as scheduled Tuesday, and dock landing ship Pearl Harbor is scheduled to depart Thursday morning as planned, Navy officials said.

Peleliu’s delay is the second in less than a week involving San Diego-based ships.

Guided missile destroyer Milius, equipped with the latest Aegis ballistic missile defense system, was supposed to deploy Monday for an independent deployment to the Persian Gulf region. But on May 15, SurFor officials, citing “required predeployment maintenance,” postponed the departure until at least midweek.

Milius left Tuesday, Servello said.