MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Gringo-Gaucho drills this week with USS George Washington

The USS George Washington has already participated in joint maneuvers with the Argentine Navy in 2008

The US Navy's George Washington nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is due this week in the South Atlantic for the “Gringo-Gaucho II” joint maneuvers with Argentina approximately 60 miles off Mar del Plata amid President Javier Milei's rapprochement with Washington. Escorted by the USS Porter and the logistic ship USNS John Lenthall, the carrier cannot dock at any relatively small Argentine port given her size.

 However, Milei, Defense Minister Luis Petri, and other high-ranking officials will visit the structure between Thursday 30 and Friday 31, it was reported in Buenos Aires. In addition, a protocol ceremony is to be held in Mar del Plata.

After Argentina had recently applied for NATO allegiance and the Navy's recent joint drills with its French counterpart, co-working with the George Washington would further get local officers acquainted with NATO standards towards building a Maritime Task Force, it was explained.

The Argentine Navy will be represented by the Destroyers ARA “La Argentina” and ARA “Sarandí”; the Corvettes ARA “Espora” and ARA “Rosales”; the Ocean Patrol Boats ARA “Contraalmirante Cordero”, ARA “Piedrabuena” and ARA “Storni”; two Sea King H3 helicopters; a Fennec helicopter, a B-200 maritime exploration or surveillance aircraft; and two other turbo-powered aircraft.

Already sailing aboard the US carrier are Argentine Navy Commander Patricio Alisi and Lieutenant Commander Lucas David Murgia, who are planning and coordinating the exercises, which are to focus on tactical communications, airborne personnel transfers between units, navigation, fixed-wing aircraft, helicopter deck landings, anti-aircraft and anti-submarine defense; and Search and Seizure deployments, among other topics.

Similar joint drills took place in 1990 involving the US carrier Abraham Lincoln and was encored in 1991 with the USS Kitty Hawk, in 1993 it was the USS Constellation, in 2004 it was time for the USS Ronald Reagan; in 2008 with the USS George Washington and in 2010 with the USS Carl Vinson, when the codename “Gringo-Gaucho” was adopted.

The George Washington Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. She is 333 meters long, 78 meters wide, and 74 meters high in its superstructure, for a crew of about 3,200. On the Argentine side, some 300 sailors will participate.

Her presence will mark another notch in Milei's closeness with the United States following Southern Command Chief General Laura Richardson's recent trip to Argentina and the purchase of US-built F-16 fighter jets from Denmark to be delivered over the next four years.